Photo: Aurora, Illinois Police Chief Kristen Ziman

A patron’s Facebook review of Paramount Theatre recently triggered an investigation by the Aurora Police Department, according to a blog post by Police Chief Kristen Ziman.

“He gave the Paramount a 1-star review with an editorial about how the theater is in a “really bad neighborhood.” He went on to say that he was mugged walking from the parking lot to the theater,” says Ziman, who was alerted to the review when asked about the mugging by the mayor’s office. “As if that weren’t traumatic enough, he reported that on the way back to his car he was approached by several ‘blacks’ asking for money and harassing him and his companion. He then warns theater-goers to ‘bring your gun’ and gives some sage advice to us: ‘Clean up your shit, AURORA.'”

Ziman was immediately skeptical because she would have heard of an incident as serious as a robbery. She had officers check records and could find no reported incident, so she directed her lieutenant to assign a detective to investigate. “Pull video from cameras in the downtown area. Search for the victim in records. If there was a robbery, we need to know about it so we can formulate an operational response,” Ziman said.

The detective located the alleged victim one town over and called the residence. The man who posted the review was not home, but his wife answered. “The woman advised that she and her husband did, in fact, attend a Saturday evening show where a Queen cover band was performing. When the detective pressed about any unusual incidents that occurred while going to and from the show, the woman seemed befuddled.”

“The detective shared with her the content of her husband’s posts on social media claiming to be the victim of a robbery and she couldn’t understand why he would say such a thing.” says Ziman.

Ziman’s blog has a bit of an ant-disclaimer at the top, saying that she works to keep her views and the views of the police department aligned. She goes on to defend the hard work the Aurora police department has done to make the second largest city in Illinois safe. In fact, it ranks below the national average for crime.

“We’ve worked very closely with the APD in the past and continue to. They have always gone out of their way to make the patrons at the Paramount Theatre, RiverEdge Park, and downtown Aurora safe,” Paramount President and CEO Tim Rater told PerformInk. “I live, work and play in Aurora. So does my family. We have always felt safe, quite frankly because it is. Chief Ziman rocks, so does the APD,” he continued.

In a firey defense of the city, Ziman says “Mr. Pants on Fire, I very much appreciate your suggestion that we “clean up our s&*#.” We will continue to fight against those who do harm in our city and I stand with the men and women of the Aurora Police Department who come to work every day to confront those evil-doers. I also speak on behalf of the fine people who call Aurora home and don’t take kindly to bashing our city with fabrications of grandeur. So might I politely suggest turning your attention to your own poopie that is in need of disinfecting.”

Read Chief Ziman’s full blog post here.