{"id":280365,"date":"2023-07-07T09:36:27","date_gmt":"2023-07-07T14:36:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=280365"},"modified":"2023-07-07T09:53:19","modified_gmt":"2023-07-07T14:53:19","slug":"harrahs-joliet-evacuation-caused-by-fireworks-hotel-room","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/harrahs-joliet-evacuation-caused-by-fireworks-hotel-room\/","title":{"rendered":"Harrah’s Joliet Evacuation Caused By Fireworks Found in Hotel Room"},"content":{"rendered":"

Harrah’s Joliet in Illinois, located southwest of Chicago, was evacuated on Friday, June 30, after a housekeeper discovered what they thought to be explosives in a guest room. Law enforcement later determined the items to be “commercial-grade fireworks.”<\/p>\n

\"Harrah's
Thomas Lopez allegedly left commercial-grade fireworks in his Harrah’s Joliet casino hotel room. The discovery of the fireworks by a housekeeper prompted an evacuation of the riverboat. (Image: Joliet Police Department)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The incident resulted in the riverboat casino<\/a> and adjacent hotel being evacuated around noon that day. A bomb squad from the Cook County Sheriff’s Office was brought in to clear the property. Police additionally found more commercial-grade fireworks in a vehicle in the casino’s parking garage belonging to the individual who was on the room reservation.<\/p>\n

\n

Joliet Police later identified Thomas Lopez, 42, of Joliet, as the alleged culprit. Lopez has a lengthy rap sheet and is currently facing charges for DUI, aggravated battery, and use of a deadly weapon in an incident that occurred in early April.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Fireworks remain illegal in Illinois<\/a> other than novelty products such as sparklers, bottle rockets, Roman candles, and smoke grenades. Violating the law, officially known as the Pyrotechnic Use Act, is a Class A misdemeanor punishable by fines up to $2,500 and a year in prison.<\/p>\n

Illinois is one of only three states that prohibit most consumer fireworks.<\/p>\n

Charges Forthcoming<\/b><\/h2>\n

Joliet Police said apprehending Lopez wasn’t an easy feat. Law enforcement tracked Lopez down to a party bus in the area, but the driver of the Ford E-450 vehicle was uncooperative.<\/p>\n

Police said they pulled over the party bus around 11 p.m. on Tuesday, July 1, near Kelly and Ingalls avenues, about two miles from the Harrah’s Joliet casino. The driver, 36-year-old Joshua Cargle, refused to comply with police in furnishing his driver’s license.<\/p>\n

\n

Cargle had a reason for trying to evade the police. Law enforcement said he was driving on a suspended license. He was charged with obstructing the administration of law enforcement and driving on a revoked driver’s license.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Lopez was taken into custody for possession of fireworks. A search of the party bus vehicle turned up illegal drugs, including cocaine and Ecstasy. Anti-anxiety pills were also discovered.<\/p>\n

According to Will County Court records, Lopez hasn’t yet been formally charged for fireworks possession. He’s next due in court on July 13 for the pretrial of his aggravated battery\/DUI case.<\/p>\n

Police said in that matter, Lopez allegedly got into an altercation outside a bar before he decided to purposely run his Ford Econoline van into another man’s Chevrolet Malibu. The incident happened outside One More Time Sports Bar at 1527 N. Raynor Avenue in Crest Hill.<\/p>\n

Fireworks Injuries<\/b><\/h2>\n

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission reported last month that there were an estimated 10,200 fireworks-related injuries treated in hospital emergency departments last year. The independent agency of the US government says there is a “statistically significant trend in estimated emergency department-treated, fireworks-related injuries from 2007 through 2002.”<\/p>\n

\n

This trend estimates an increase of 535 fireworks injuries per year,” the agency reported.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Though fireworks-related injuries are increasing, there were only 11 fireworks-related deaths in 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Harrah’s Joliet was evacuated on June 30 after a housekeeper found what the employee believed to be explosives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":280377,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,21],"tags":[13766,84299,84632,82228,82516],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHarrah's Joliet Evacuation Caused By Fireworks in Hotel Room<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Harrah's Joliet in Illinois southwest of Chicago was evacuated on June 30 after a housekeeper discovered what they thought to be explosives.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/harrahs-joliet-evacuation-caused-by-fireworks-hotel-room\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Harrah's Joliet Evacuation Caused By Fireworks in Hotel Room\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Harrah's Joliet in Illinois southwest of Chicago was evacuated on June 30 after a housekeeper discovered what they thought to be explosives.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/harrahs-joliet-evacuation-caused-by-fireworks-hotel-room\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-07-07T14:36:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-07-07T14:53:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Harrahs_Joliet.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Devin O'Connor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@CasinoorgDevinO\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Devin O'Connor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/harrahs-joliet-evacuation-caused-by-fireworks-hotel-room\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/harrahs-joliet-evacuation-caused-by-fireworks-hotel-room\/\",\"name\":\"Harrah's Joliet Evacuation Caused By Fireworks in Hotel Room\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/harrahs-joliet-evacuation-caused-by-fireworks-hotel-room\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/harrahs-joliet-evacuation-caused-by-fireworks-hotel-room\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Harrahs_Joliet.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-07-07T14:36:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-07-07T14:53:19+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/02b4fee8814a4003903b0021bffb4ebf\"},\"description\":\"Harrah's Joliet in Illinois southwest of Chicago was evacuated on June 30 after a housekeeper discovered what they thought to be explosives.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/harrahs-joliet-evacuation-caused-by-fireworks-hotel-room\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/harrahs-joliet-evacuation-caused-by-fireworks-hotel-room\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/harrahs-joliet-evacuation-caused-by-fireworks-hotel-room\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Harrahs_Joliet.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Harrahs_Joliet.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":800,\"caption\":\"Thomas Lopez allegedly left commercial-grade fireworks in his Harrah's Joliet casino hotel room. The discovery of the fireworks by a housekeeper prompted an evacuation of the riverboat. (Image: Joliet Police Department)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/harrahs-joliet-evacuation-caused-by-fireworks-hotel-room\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Crime & Scandals\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/scandals\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Harrah’s Joliet Evacuation Caused By Fireworks Found in Hotel Room\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/02b4fee8814a4003903b0021bffb4ebf\",\"name\":\"Devin O'Connor\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-4-1-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-4-1-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Devin O'Connor\"},\"description\":\"Devin O'Connor is a senior reporter for Casino.org, covering politics, casino business, entertainment and gaming news on the East Coast. Devin's passion for politics and background in the world of pop culture television gives him insight into the gaming industry backstories that often drive news these days. After graduating from Penn State University with a theater arts degree, he worked at MTV Networks\/Viacom from 2005 to 2010 as a writer and producer. His credits included Total Request Live, New Year's Eve specials, and a special featuring poker superstar Daniel Negreanu. He later moved on to the HGTV\/DIY Network, where he created, wrote, and produced three series specials: That's So House Hunters, That's So 80s, and That's So 90s. Devin came on board with Casino.org in 2014. He lives in Pennsylvania and is an avid marathoner, having completed 15 races. Contact Devin at devin.oconnor@casino.org.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/devinoconnor\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/CasinoorgDevinO\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/devin-oconnor\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Harrah's Joliet Evacuation Caused By Fireworks in Hotel Room","description":"Harrah's Joliet in Illinois southwest of Chicago was evacuated on June 30 after a housekeeper discovered what they thought to be explosives.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/harrahs-joliet-evacuation-caused-by-fireworks-hotel-room\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Harrah's Joliet Evacuation Caused By Fireworks in Hotel Room","og_description":"Harrah's Joliet in Illinois southwest of Chicago was evacuated on June 30 after a housekeeper discovered what they thought to be explosives.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/harrahs-joliet-evacuation-caused-by-fireworks-hotel-room\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2023-07-07T14:36:27+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-07-07T14:53:19+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":800,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Harrahs_Joliet.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Devin O'Connor","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@CasinoorgDevinO","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Devin O'Connor","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/harrahs-joliet-evacuation-caused-by-fireworks-hotel-room\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/harrahs-joliet-evacuation-caused-by-fireworks-hotel-room\/","name":"Harrah's Joliet Evacuation Caused By Fireworks in Hotel Room","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/harrahs-joliet-evacuation-caused-by-fireworks-hotel-room\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/harrahs-joliet-evacuation-caused-by-fireworks-hotel-room\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Harrahs_Joliet.jpg","datePublished":"2023-07-07T14:36:27+00:00","dateModified":"2023-07-07T14:53:19+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/02b4fee8814a4003903b0021bffb4ebf"},"description":"Harrah's Joliet in Illinois southwest of Chicago was evacuated on June 30 after a housekeeper discovered what they thought to be explosives.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/harrahs-joliet-evacuation-caused-by-fireworks-hotel-room\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/harrahs-joliet-evacuation-caused-by-fireworks-hotel-room\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/harrahs-joliet-evacuation-caused-by-fireworks-hotel-room\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Harrahs_Joliet.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Harrahs_Joliet.jpg","width":1200,"height":800,"caption":"Thomas Lopez allegedly left commercial-grade fireworks in his Harrah's Joliet casino hotel room. The discovery of the fireworks by a housekeeper prompted an evacuation of the riverboat. (Image: Joliet Police Department)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/harrahs-joliet-evacuation-caused-by-fireworks-hotel-room\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Crime & Scandals","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/scandals\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Harrah’s Joliet Evacuation Caused By Fireworks Found in Hotel Room"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/02b4fee8814a4003903b0021bffb4ebf","name":"Devin O'Connor","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-4-1-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-4-1-96x96.png","caption":"Devin O'Connor"},"description":"Devin O'Connor is a senior reporter for Casino.org, covering politics, casino business, entertainment and gaming news on the East Coast. Devin's passion for politics and background in the world of pop culture television gives him insight into the gaming industry backstories that often drive news these days. After graduating from Penn State University with a theater arts degree, he worked at MTV Networks\/Viacom from 2005 to 2010 as a writer and producer. His credits included Total Request Live, New Year's Eve specials, and a special featuring poker superstar Daniel Negreanu. He later moved on to the HGTV\/DIY Network, where he created, wrote, and produced three series specials: That's So House Hunters, That's So 80s, and That's So 90s. Devin came on board with Casino.org in 2014. He lives in Pennsylvania and is an avid marathoner, having completed 15 races. Contact Devin at devin.oconnor@casino.org.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/devinoconnor\/","https:\/\/x.com\/CasinoorgDevinO"],"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/devin-oconnor\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280365"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280365"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":280396,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280365\/revisions\/280396"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}