MAN LOSING HOME COMES TO COURT
WITH LOADED GUN
Tuesday, August 24, 2010— A Chicago man set to be evicted from his home as a result of a foreclosure showed up for a Monday court hearing with a loaded handgun in his briefcase, Cook County Sheriff Thomas J. Dart announced Tuesday.
Thomas Pridgeon, 48, of the 7300 block of South Laflin Street, is charged with unlawful use of a weapon after he was arrested at the security post at the Daley Center.
Pridgeon has been facing foreclosure on the home since 2009, after BNY Mellon filed a foreclosure action in Cook County Circuit Court. Monday’s hearing was to approve transfer of the property to a private lender in North Carolina, which had bid on it at a tax sale.
With bank attorneys set to appear at the hearing to petition for transfer of ownership, Pridgeon would have 30 days to get out of the home and relinquish control to new owners.
As Pridgeon came into the Daley Center to attend that hearing, he placed his briefcase on a screening machine as he passed through a metal detector. A deputy positioned at that machine noticed the outline of a weapon in the briefcase as it went through.
The .45-caliber handgun was loaded with one bullet in the chamber and seven more bullets in the clip. When asked about the weapon, Pridgeon claimed he forgot it was in there. He was arrested and an investigation was conducted by the Cook County Sheriff’s Criminal Intelligence Unit.
He will appear in bond court at 26th and California today.