Chicago Cops Pull Off Insurance Scam, FBI Says More Charges Coming

A Chicago police officer working with a tow company owner and another policeman allegedly scammed an insurance company, authorities said yesterday.

According to a news account in the Chicago Sun-Times, Officer Joseph A. Grillo, 45, was arrested on June 5 at O’Hare Airport after he got off a plane. The FBI was involved in the arrest.

Grillo and Jim “Meatball” Athans of Woodale, Ill.and owner of Collision Towing at 4216 W. Wrightwood in Chicago was also charged with mail fraud, a felony.

The cops allegedly set up the theft of a 1996 Volkswagen owned by an another officer to collect money from State Farm Insurance, the FBI said.

According to the FBI, Athans towed the Volkswagen from the back of the Grand-Central Area police headquarters on Feb. 18, 2007.

The officer who reported the car wound up getting $3,900 from State Farm, but the car was taken to a storage lot where the owner chopped up the car for parts, the FBI said.

The 16-month investigation was conducted by the FBI and the Chicago Police internal affairs division.

A Chicago Police spokesperson said it was the second-largest IAD investigation since 2004.

Pam Zekman, a seasoned investigative reporter for Channel 2 TV-CBS in Chicago, broke the story in 2007. At that time in Zekman’s broadcast account she accused Collision Towing of illegally impersonating police officers to shake down crash victims for large fee amounts.

According to the Sun-Times, the FBI said more charges are forthcoming.

Grillo’s lawyer, Barry Sheppard, said Grillo had a long, clean history with the Chicago Police department.

Sheppard was released from a Chicago lockup on June 5. The attorney representing Athans did not provide a comment.

Sun-Times staff writers Frank Main and Natasha Korecki contributed to this account.

Latest Comments

• June 6, 2008 at 6:09 am

  Walter Jones says:

  In the "old" days, when you traveled to Chi-town, you wrapped a 20 around your drivers license in the event you got pulled over by the cops. Is that still the going rate or is... read more
• June 6, 2008 at 12:47 pm

  kathy says:

  I wonder what the going rate is for dissected bug parts go for?
• June 6, 2008 at 11:07 am

  Former Chicagoan says:

  Loved this article. Especially the part about 'a clean record up to this time.' which really means 'not caught until recently' and that the attorney was released from lock-up,... read more