A Bellwood woman forced her way into a car stopped at a traffic light in Arlington Heights Wednesday morning, then sped off in the vehicle, sideswiping one car before colliding head-on with another, injuring the driver, Arlington Heights police said.
Barbara Archer has been charged with felony aggravated possession of a stolen vehicle, drunken driving and possession of drug paraphernalia, Sgt. Jeff Dufloth said.
Archer is scheduled to appear in Bond Court in Rolling Meadows on Thursday, according to a spokeswoman for the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.
The driver of the second vehicle, an Arlington Heights man, was taken to Northwest Community Hospital with broken bones, but his injuries are not life-threatening. No one else was injured.
About 9 a.m. police were called to the 500 block of West Euclid Street, Dufloth said. They found Archer pounding on the apartment door of a man she identified as her boyfriend. The man told police he knew Archer, but she wasn’t his girlfriend.
When police asked Archer to leave, she asked for a ride to the train station, Dufloth said. About 20 minutes after police dropped her off at the station, several blocks from the apartment building, they were called back to the apartment building, where Archer again was pounding on the man’s door, he said.
Police drove Archer to the train station again, but she went back to the apartment again, Dufloth said.
As officers arrived, they noticed a group gesturing to a woman in the passenger seat of a 2004 Lincoln Navigator in the middle of traffic at Euclid and Walnut Avenue, Dufloth said. Archer had forced her way into the SUV and the driver had fled, he said.
Archer moved into the driver’s seat, put the car in drive and rammed the vehicle in front of her before heading north on Walnut, Dufloth said. She later lost control of the car and hit the Arlington Heights man’s vehicle, he said.
