Highlands Man Charged with Sexual Solicitation of a Child

A 51-year-old La Grange Highlands trucker was charged with attempted aggravated criminal sexual abuse and indecent solicitation of a child in DuPage County on Thursday after allegedly travelling to a Carol Stream grocery store on Wednesday to meet a 14-year-old girl for sex, the Daily Herald reports.

Instead, police said, Jeffrey Bennett, 51, of the 6100 block of S. Edgewood Lane in La Grange Highlands, was accosted and arrested by undercover Carol Stream police who had posed as the girl. Assistant State's Attorney Joe Baumann told a bond court that Bennett eventually confessed his intent to have sex with the (non-existent) teen.

Read the complete story at the Daily Herald website.

La Grange Highlands is the common name for the unincorporated area southeast of Western Springs and southwest of La Grange. Recent proposals from Cook County would involve enveloping the unincorporated area into a nearby municipality.

There are currently 10 sex offenders registered in the 60525 zip code that includes La Grange Highlands (as well as La Grange, Indian Head Park, Hodgkins, Countryside and McCook), as well as one (non-compliant) in Western Springs and one in La Grange Park. (Find local sex offender information here.)

A registered sex offender was in March; last July, a Western Springs registered sex offender was .