Wilmette police are investigating how two Chicago men wearing CTA uniforms and carrying CTA keys allegedly broke into a rail yard to spray paint three CTA rail cars.
Officers said they were responding to a report of three people who may have been involved in a drug deal and stopped a car with two men matching the description near the CTA Linden stop about 5 p.m.
As the men were being questioned by police during that stop, a CTA employee in the rail yard notified Wilmette police about new graffiti on some train cars. When they are out of service, Purple Line train cars sit in a rail yard near the Linden station, the northern end of the Purple Line.
Police said they searched the men’s car and found more than 30 cans of spray paint, CTA maps, gloves and pictures.
The men were wearing CTA shirts, hats and traffic vests and carrying a set of keys that allowed them to access to restricted CTA areas, police said.
The men have not been employed by the CTA, Wilmette Police Sgt. Solveig Gehrken said.
“We don’t know how they obtained the keys,” Gehrken said.
CTA spokeswoman Tammy Chase said she could not comment on a pending investigation and referred calls to Wilmette Police.
Miguel Carrasquillo, 40, of 5811 W. Walton St., and Jose Godinez, 29, of 1946 S. Racine Ave., were charged with felony criminal damage to property in the Thursday incident.
Both men have been previously arrested for vandalism, Cook County court records show. Gehrken said the department is looking into whether they were involved in other graffiti cases at the rail yard.
Carrasquillo was ordered held on $50,000 bond while Godinez was ordered held on $5,000 bond in hearings last week. Both are scheduled to appear in Skokie court Oct. 30.
