{"id":1012407,"date":"2026-08-20T07:51:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T07:51:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1012407\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T07:51:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T07:51:21","slug":"felon-accused-of-kohls-theft-had-loaded-machine-gun-in-car-prosecutors-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1012407\/","title":{"rendered":"Felon accused of Kohl\u2019s theft had loaded &#8216;machine gun&#8217; in car, prosecutors say"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/benavidez-mug-shot-image.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"764\" height=\"432\" loading=\"eager\" fetchpriority=\"high\" data-v-653d32e2=\"\"\/> article <\/p>\n<p data-v-653d32e2=\"\">Iziah Benavidez, 23, of Cook County <strong class=\"source\" data-v-653d32e2=\"\">(DuPage County)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\"><strong>COOK COUNTY, Ill.<\/strong> &#8211; A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox32chicago.com\/tag\/us\/il\/cook-county\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Cook County<\/a> man is facing felony charges after allegedly stealing from a Kohl\u2019s earlier this month in west suburban <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox32chicago.com\/tag\/us\/il\/dupage-county\/elmhurst\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Elmhurst.<\/a><\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Iziah Benavidez, 23, of Cook County <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dupagecounty.gov\/state_s_attorney\/pre-trial_release_denied_for_cook_county_man_charged_1755.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">was charged Tuesday<\/a> with unlawful possession of a weapon, burglary, unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon and two counts of retail theft. He was denied pre-trial release on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p> Kohl&#8217;s shoplifting leads to seizure of guns  <\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"WFLD\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">Timeline:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">A Kohl&#8217;s loss prevention team reported a retail theft on Aug. 9 at a store in Elmhurst, according to the DuPage County State&#8217;s Attorney&#8217;s Office. Benavidez and another man allegedly stole backpacks from the store and began hiding additional merchandise inside of it before leaving the store without paying.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">The two men then entered their car and fled the scene.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">On Monday, Elmhurst police pulled over the suspected vehicle for a traffic stop. Officers said they received information that Benavidez had allegedly stolen a battery charger from the Elmhurst Kohl&#8217;s earlier that same day. Police say that they spotted the battery charge in the backseat of the vehicle.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Officers say that they then asked Benavidez to exit the vehicle and began to search it. While searching the vehicle, officers state that they located a loaded 10mm Glock 29 with a 24-round capacity magazine and a switch that could enable the gun to be fired in automatic mode. They also note that they discovered a 9mm pistol in the glove compartment that had previously been reported as stolen by the Chicago Police Department in January.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"WFLD\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">What they&#8217;re saying:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">&#8220;Public safety has always been and remains the top priority of my office,&#8221; DuPage County State&#8217;s Attorney Robert Berline said in a statement. &#8220;As a convicted felon, Mr. Benavidez has forfeited his right to legally possess a firearm. The allegation that he unlawfully possessed an extremely dangerous, loaded gun with a twenty-four-round magazine capable of firing as a machine gun, is alarming.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"WFLD\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">What&#8217;s next:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Benavidez\u2019s next court appearance is scheduled for Sept. 14.<\/p>\n<p class=\"group-source-paragraph\" data-v-4fbf7207=\"\"><b data-v-4fbf7207=\"\">The Source:<\/b> Information for this report comes from a press release by DuPage County State&#8217;s Attorney Robert Berlin&#8217;s office. This report was done from Eden Prairie, Minnesota.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox32chicago.com\/tag\/crime-publicsafety\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-94395e58=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Crime and Public Safety<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox32chicago.com\/tag\/us\/il\/dupage-county\/elmhurst\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-94395e58=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Elmhurst<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox32chicago.com\/tag\/us\/il\/dupage-county\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-94395e58=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">DuPage County<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox32chicago.com\/tag\/news\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-94395e58=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">News<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"article Iziah Benavidez, 23, of Cook County (DuPage County) COOK COUNTY, Ill. &#8211; A Cook County man is&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1012408,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,6082,17073,1108,5386,1818,50,68],"class_list":["post-1012407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago","tag-chicago","tag-crime-publicsafety","tag-dupage-county","tag-elmhurst","tag-il","tag-illinois","tag-news","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117126750918799364","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1012407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1012407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1012407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1012408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1012407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1012407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1012407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}