Police: Man found hiding in dumpster after running from cops

RIVERSIDE — Riverside police caught a Bellwood man in a dumpster after he allegedly led police on a chase through the west suburb early Monday.

Several people called police about 1:15 a.m. to report a man, 23-year-old Ashton T. Adger, passed out in the driver’s seat of a vehicle stopped at the intersection of Burlington and Harlem, according to a statement from Riverside police.

When officers walked up, they could see Adger asleep, slumping over the steering wheel. Despite officers pounding on the window, he would not wake up, police said.

When he eventually woke up and rolled down his window, he seemed confused and his eyes were bloodshot. Officers could also smell the “obvious” scent of marijuana, police said. He told officers that he was headed to downstate Urbana, but had fallen asleep waiting for a train to pass.

After officers asked him to get out of the vehicle, he shifted into gear and took off speeding, with officers clocking him at 96 mph in a 30 mph zone, police said.

Traveling south on Harlem, Adger turned east onto 39th Street and parked his vehicle outside of Marlin’s Bar. Adger got out of the vehicle are ran off, police said. Other municipalities joined in the search, including Lyons, Stickney, Forest View and North Riverside, police said. Forest Park’s Canine Unit was also brought in for the search.

A short time later, police found Adger in a dumpster, covered in trash, behind a building in the 7300 block of 39th Street in Lyons, near the vehicle he ran from, police said.

Riverside police recovered more than 140 grams of marijuana — including some along the path of the chase — and $785, police said.

Adger was charged with aggravated fleeing and eluding police, unlawful possession of cannabis with intent to deliver, resisting arrest, possession of drug paraphernalia, driving under the influence of alcohol, driving under the influence of drugs and “several” other traffic citations, including driving 96 mph in a 30 mph zone, police said.

At the time of his arrest Monday, Adger was out on a $25,000 bond stemming from felony weapons and drug charges in Champaign, police said.