Crime Blamed For Joliet Citgo Station Closure Near Airport

JOLIET, IL — Many communities take a lot of pride in their entrance gateways. Joliet has a large digital billboard along West Jefferson Street welcoming eastbound motorists to the city. However, one of the first businesses people see upon entering Joliet is the Citgo station at Airport Drive.

It's shutdown. And it's remained that way for many months now.

A sign on the door proclaims that the city of Joliet's business license services has suspended the gas station from operating.

Representatives of Citgo put up their own sign on one of the entrance windows to the convenience store. Their sign informs visitors to the property that, "Due to robberies store has been emptied of cash, ATM, gaming machines and general stock."

The Citgo is directly across the street from the Joliet Regional Airport property, which is owned by the Joliet Park District.

On Tuesday afternoon, Joliet Police Sgt. Dwayne English checked his agency's records and found 79 Joliet police calls for service during the past two years. He said none of the calls indicated any robberies, however, there were reports of burglaries to the Citgo last June and August.

On Tuesday, city of Joliet officials told Patch that the Citgo station had a license to sell tobacco products, but the business did not sell alcohol.

According to the city clerk's office, the Citgo station was apparently sold to another corporation, and the new corporate owners did not obtain a business license from the city of Joliet, so that's why Joliet has forced the Citgo station to close down.

However, none of the gas pumps or windows to the business are boarded up.

People are still pulling into the gas station to purchase gas, not realizing it's closed.

On Tuesday afternoon, around 2 p.m. Joliet Patch saw a sports utility vehicle with several stickers and decals from the Glenview area pull up to the fuel pumps to get gas.

Eventually, after pulling up to two different pumps, the visitors to Joliet realized the pumps don't operate, so they drove off and turned into the Shell gas station just up the road on Jefferson Street, closer to the interchange for Interstate 55.

It's not immediately clear what, if anything, will happen with the Citgo gas station.

It may remain shuttered for the spring, summer and beyond.