CHICAGO — A Streets and Sanitation worker was suspended 29 days for cursing at, chasing and threatening a person who took a photo of the worker’s city-owned car parked in a bike lane, the city’s inspector general said.
The worker was only identified as a Streets and San refuse collection coordinator. City Inspector General William Marback’s office said in a report released Friday that the worker saw a member of the public taking a photo of the car parked in the bike lane.
The worker then used the car to chase the person down multiple streets and confront them, the report said.
The worker got out the car and called the picture-taker “a little bitch” and a “f—ing pussy.” As the person walked away, the worked got back in the car and began to follow again, according to the report.
“I’m going to follow you home,” the Streets and Sanitation employee said, according to the report. “Let’s see where you live.”
After the inspector general’s office got involved, the employee gave false statements and an incomplete picture when questioned about the incident, the report said.
The inspector general recommended the worker be fired and made ineligible and put on a do-not-hire list. Streets and Sanitation instead suspended the worker for 29 days.
“While the city does not comment on individual personnel matters, the Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation takes its commitment to serve the residents of Chicago with the utmost seriousness and holds its employees to that standard,” a spokesperson said. The department “has and will continue to forward all claims the department receives to the proper channels for investigation.”
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