Tuesday, January 26, 2021 by: Detective Matthew P. Kulesza, P.I.
My name is Matthew P. Kulesza. This is my website: AmericanChristian.Life. I bought a new hosting package and am in the process of rebuilding websites. Family-owned small businesses like ours, appreciate doing things for themselves and reinvesting our savings in our businesses. This was the first new website I built in a while. I was planning on having a blog into the exciting journey of Science and Faith to pique the interest of readers and spread the Good Word. My blog will continue. But I wanted to share some information that may help keep others safe, even though this is not this website’s typical subject matter.
[UPDATE: February 15, 2021, The tape was take off my nose on February 10 revealing the radical disfigurement of my face and nose now that some swelling has gone down. I can not recognize my own face. My nose is twisted noticeably clockwise toward the top, protruding out on the left top side and crushed in on the right top side, then running down my face where it curves back to where my nostrils want to be. It is painful and hurts to smile, cry, breath. I am seeing my GP tomorrow. I just talked to her nurse today and she said it needs to be fixed immediately as my broken septum (bone and cartilidge serparating the left from the right side sinus cavity) is also several degress off the 90 degree perpendicular. I will not give up Hope and Faith. But I am finding it difficult to find specialists and qualified facial reconstruction plastic surgeons who are anxious to speak to an HMO policy holder. I’ve a appointment with my GP and will ask for any and all advice on how to get my face repaired and the right healthcare people to speak with and what to say. So far, I have one consultation scheduled toward the end of March as I couldn’t properly explain the urgency of repairing my face before it heals into place. I don’t believe cosmetic suregeons accept insurance of any kind? Prayers are appreciated. God Bless All of You.]
[UPDATE: February 02, 2021, My family and friends have started an online fundraiser to help out while I am rebuilding my small family-business and recovering from my first surgery, yesterday, to begin reconstruction of my shattered nose and crushed nasal / sinus cavity. God Bless All of You. – The surgeon states I will required additional surgery to complete the sinus cavity’s reconstruction and facial recontruction.]
Fundraiser to Support Medical & Associated Expenses.
I am the state-licensed private detective who was held captive in the driver’s seat of my car and brutally beaten and robbed by two men while I was in a residential neighborhood in Antioch, Illinois to assist on finalizing a routine insurance claim on January 20, 2021, ‘Inauguration Day’. A Sport Utility Vehicle SUV approached me as I sat parked between what appeared to an empty lot and a public golf course fairway on either side of the street, both covered with snow on that January day in this quiet suburb of Chicago. As the man from the first vehicle forced open my car door and began his assault on me, a second man arrived in another vehicle and blocked any rearward egress for my escape. The second man soon joined in on the assult as I was trapped in my driver’s seat, both of them holding the door open and preventing any escape.
I prayed to God for a Miracle to allow my fingers to be steady enough to dial 911 as my vision was being blinded by blows, knocking off my reading glasses. The video attached to this blog begins with me shouting at the phone grasped in my outstretched arm for 911, but that may have been one of my failed attempts to call 911; I actually believe I called ‘#11’ accidentally at one point. I don’t know if I was even able to hit the send button for the emergency call; but I was praying I was. Unable to see clearly, I tried desperately to hold onto my phone and kept trying again, and again to dial the 911 Emergency Dispatcher with one thumb stretching to reach the number keys.
Then I thought I heard a voice on the phone I held in my outstretched arm, keeping it away from my attackers. The younger male by this time had climbed into my car, on top of me, continuing to land blows non-stop while the older one was pulling at my ankle to keep me from escaping out the passenger door and keeping my body and face turned upright to accept their brutally violent torture. Then I again thought I may have heard a voice from my phone’s speaker, and the beat-down crushing of my face and nasal cavity suddenly stopped as the phone was taken from my hand by my attackers. Did my attackers hear a voice on the phone too? Was it the 911 Emergency Dispatcher? I kept praying it was the 911 Operator so I might have a chance to see my family again.
The younger male crawled off me and out of my car. Moments later, as I eventually built the strength to sit up from being punched-down across my equipment bag and my car’s center console, I found the younger male sticking his cellphone camera lens in my face. He was crouched down to continue to block my car door with his body, keeping me held captive in my driver’s seat. Both my attackers appeared to be quite pleased with the deformity of my now injured face as the younger male mocked my disfigurement, holding his cellphone’s camera device up to my face.
The Good Lord heard my prayers that evening and decided I would see my family again. I soon saw the flashing lights of the Lake County Sheriff’s Department patrol vehicles approaching. The 911 Emergency Dispatcher was either able to hear me shouting my location during the beating I received, or perhaps was able to recognize my phone-number from when I checked-in earlier in the day letting them know I was an insurance investigator and the duration of where I would be parked.
The cops took them away from my vehicle and asked to see the video I was able to capture when the camera wasn’t being knocked around by their blows; every time the screen shuts, the camera turns off. And its difficult to re-open the screen with one hand as my other hand was trying to call 911 over and over until I was successful.
The Sheriff’s Deputy saw my video and immediately arrested them both on-scene. I learned the younger one had a 9mm round in his pocket and the older one had been accused of blocking someone else in with his vehicle in the past. I informed the Sheriff’s Deputy they told me they were watching me for two days through binoculars. And with one arriving a minute or so after the other, presumably to drive the long way around the block and come up behind my car as it was blocked in from the front by the SUV, demonstrates a premeditated and coordinated attack.
I was ambushed.
My car door being unlocked was an anomaly. I remember I was just preparing to eat the sandwich I had brought for dinner but needed to retrieve a beverage contaier from the trunk at some point. Perhaps that’s when the door was left unlocked? A costly mistake that almost cost me my life. As I sat in my car and took a bite of my sandwich, my phone rang; it was my brother. I answered chewing on my first bite of my dinner, but I knew he would understand my straying from proper phone etiquette in trade for workday multi-tasking. A few seconds into our phone conversation I told my brother I would need to call him back because some guy just stopped in front of my car and blocked me in.
I wasn’t able to call my brother back for a few days until I could purchase a replacement phone. Another Lake County Deputy Sheriff on the scene returned my phone and its ‘Otterbox Defender Series’ phone case; he had found my crushed phone and case in the younger male’s vehicle when he returned it to me. The speaker was smashed but not the microphone. I can’t hear callers, but they can hear me.
I am certain Miracles do happen.
- I thank our Lord Jesus Christ for hearing my prayers to reach the 911 Emergency Dispatcher.
- I thank the 911 Dispatcher who heard my calls for help.
- I thank the Lake County Sheriff’s Department, for without the intervention of God, the 911 Dispatcher and their heroic response, I would not be here today.
- I thank the Emergency Medical Responders who showed up promptly to assist.
- I thank the whole staff at the hospital, administration, nurses and the Emergency Room doctor who were there to help the injured and sick in our community.
- I thank my family for their support in these trying times. Please do not fear and Trust in the Lord.
I share the photos of my swollen bloodied face and crushed nasal deformity to help bring awareness to the dangers all Americans face every day. Friends, family and colleagues have reached out to me wishing me to get well soon. Another private investigator, I never met him, had reached out to me to see how I was doing. This kind gesture from a total stranger, a colleague, really touched my family – me too. As did all who reached out to me. Thank you. My family thanks you all.
Many of us Americans have lost some of our own. Disease and accidents take our loved ones at times, leaving us with broken hearts and fond, loving memories. Some of us have lost friends and family on battlefields. Some after they came home from the battlefields. We lost our mother in 2016 and our disabled veteran father in 2013. We miss them dearly, every day. A few years back one of our cousins was murdered for a few hundred dollars after moving to California. Death is inevitable for everyone but No families should ever have to suffer such tragic loss to violent crimes in our USA.
At 51, I am getting up in age. I have been previously diagnosed with a Rheumatoid Arthritis, a bad back, a torn hamstring and a reconstructed knee and since the attack they tell me I now have a heart condition. But I am thankful I am alive and was able to see my family again. I am thankful I was able to take the beating from the two violent thugs, instead of them targeting someone less capable to endure their attack than I. My maternal grandmother, a devout Christian who was called home many years ago, would remind me as a kid if I ever began to feel sorry for myself, “when life seems unfair I should Count my Blessings, and remember there are others who have been burdened with even greater troubles than mine”.
Someone forwarded me a link to the quotation below. Can you guess who that social media post belongs to? How afraid should my family be?
( https://m.facebook.com/RWrightOutdoors/photos/a.824655614354781/1085476514939355/?type=3&source=48 )
The question is: How do we keep our families, our kids, our parents, and our grandparents safe from violent criminals when we are away from home? A security system? Video cameras? They help. For my family-owned small-business, my resources are exhausted, just as many American family-owned small businesses are during these volatile times. We are all barely hanging on to our families’ income sources. Updated security is not an option for many of us on tight budgets.
The real answer to keeping our families safe is:
MORE POLICE. A cop on every other corner.
Also, please don’t let these thugs leave a bad impression of Antioch, Illinois. Antioch is a beautiful town with mostly terrific people, lest those two violent thugs who attacked me. I remember being in Antioch just a few years back on a summer weekend night. Families walking down past the shops on Main Street. A line outside their old-style movie theater with that light-bulb-lined marquee hanging over the sidewalk and families debating between which movie to see. Cops driving down the strip providing comfort and security to the happy residents of Antioch, Illinois. I had to stop that night a few years back and soak in that iconic American moment on that beautiful summer evening. It almost looked like a Norman Rockwell painting – but with folks on smartphones.
So many American Families have lost so much to keep America safe. Our Dad’s brothers were in various branches of the service. My maternal Grandfather served. His daughter served. I have cousins who still serve. Americans have lost too much and buried too many to allow evil to triumph. Fear No Evil.
Work will be difficult for a bit. But I count my Blessings, Keep the Faith and work on healing fast so I, as the man of the house, may provide for our household again. I ask that you please pray for my family. I have Faith I will be back at full strength someday and ready to work when I am able to have my nasal cavity put back together allowing me to breathe properly again. Pray for our Law Enforcement Community and our Rescue Workers and our Military who voluntarily place themselves in harm’s way to protect our communities from the predators stalking our quiet countryside. Pray We can all return safely home to our families each day.
Thanks for visiting.
May the Heavens Smile Upon You and Yours.
God Bless America.
[WARNING: VIDEO CONTAINS EXTREMELY GRAPHIC REAL-LIFE VIOLENCE & PROFANITY – VIEWER DISCRETION IS STRONGLY ADVISED]
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