Charges Filed in Hit-And-Run on House

An Aurora man is facing charges after the front of an Aurora Township home with his car early Saturday morning.

Antonio Velazquez, 30, of the 1000 block of North Ohio Street in Aurora, was charged with drunken driving and with leaving the scene of an accident after he smashed his car into a house in the 400 block of Crane Avenue around 1:20 a.m., according to Lt. Pat Gengler of the Kane County Sheriff's Department.

Velazquez fled the scene on foot, Gengler said, but was later apprehended by Aurora police on Farnsworth Avenue near Dearborn Street. He was taken to Rush-Copley Medical Center in Aurora, which then led to an out-of-the-ordinary charge, according to Gengler: eavesdropping, a felony offense.

Gengler said Velazquez used his iPhone to record sheriff's deputies discussing his case while at the hospital. The deputies told him they did not consent to being recorded, but Velazquez, highly intoxicated, continued, Gengler said, so the deputies confiscated the iPhone as evidence.

The Kane County State's Attorney's office then authorized the eavesdropping charge, Gengler said.Velazquez was also charged with failing to reduce speed to avoid an accident, and criminal damage to property.

According to Chief Rob Watermann, there were four people in the home at the time of the crash. All got out safely, but one of them was thrown from his recliner due to the force of the impact.

The house was stabilized, Watermann said, but has been declared uninhabitable.

Gengler said it was lucky that this crash happened late at night, when the streets were empty, and in a part of the county that, by the nature of its roads, keeps speeds lower.

"We were fortunate," he said. "If this had happened at noon on a Saturday, it could have been really bad."