Annoyed by his fellow commuters' loud cell phone conversations, a Chicago resident operated an illegal device for almost two years on his daily train ride to work. 
 
 Chicago police arrested commuter Dennis Nicholl last week after the 63-year-old was accused of operating a cell phone jammer on the city’s Red Line for almost two years. 
 
 Using an illegal device he ordered from China, Mr. Nicholl would create his “own personal quiet car” by turning on the jammer, rendering all nearby cell phones useless. 
 
 “He’s disturbed by people talking around him,” Nicholl’s attorney, Charles Lauer, told the judge last week after his client’s bond was set at $10,000. “He might have been selfish in thinking about himself, but he didn’t have any malicious intent.” 
 
 Nicholl takes the Red Line every day to commute from his home in Rogers Park to his job as a financial analyst at the University of Illinois, Chicago. 
 
 Fellow commuters are unsure what to make of the self-proclaimed “cellphone police": Is he a villian or a much-needed hero? 
 
 “If people can blast music from their phone and have loud conversations and not have felony charges brought against them then this guy should be able to jam signals,” Facebook user Andy Gallas commented under DNAinfo’s post of the story. 
 
 “Let’s free the cell phone jammer right now. Folk hero,” tweeted @AnthonyBialy. 
 
 “I get it. It’s annoying,” Facebook user Shellie Roman commented on the article. “But guess what, you don’t get to control someone else’s behavior just because you disapprove of it. I didn’t know this was a crime, but I can see why it would be.” 
 
 The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Chicago police teamed up to catch Nicholl in action, citing his illegal jamming as a public safety issue. In an emergency, Nicholl’s jammer would prevent commuters from calling 911. The CTA also feared Nicholl’s jammer could prevent communication between train operators. 
 
 Another Red Line rider, Brian Raida tells the Chicago Tribune that he was on his way to work in 2014 when he lost cellphone service. Working in the IT industry, Mr. Raida identified the object on Nicholl’s lap as a cell phone jammer and he took of photo of Nicholl for the police. 
 
 Raida says he went up to Nicholl as he exited the train, saying, “Hey dude, nice jammer.” 
 
 “He kind of looked at me and grinned,” says Raida. 
 
 After months of complaints, an undercover cop tried to use his cell phone while seated near Nicholl on the train at 6 am on Tuesday, and when his call was almost immediately dropped, the officer arrested Nicholl. 
 
 The undercover officer’s report says Nicholl was holding the jammer in his hand at the time of arrest. He was released Wednesday after posting bail. 
 
 “I think he liked the feeling of being in control of the car,” Aaron Robinson, a fellow commuter who saw Nicholl in action, tells the Chicago Tribune. “It’s kind of a digital ‘stay off my lawn you young people with your cellphones.’” 
 
 According to court records, Nicholl pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge in 2009 for jamming cell phones. After his first jamming stint, Nicholl’s device was destroyed and he was placed under surveillance for a year. 
 
 But this time, with a felony charge, Nicholl could face jail time. 

 Man accused of jamming cellphone signal on CTA held on $10,000 
 
 A 63-year-old CPA accused of jamming cellphone signals on a CTA Red Line train because he gets “annoyed” by commuters using their mobiles was ordered held in lieu of $10,000 bail Wednesday. 
 
 “Ah, cellphone police,” Judge James Brown said as Dennis Nicholl stood before him. 
 
 “Well, a self-proclaimed one,” Assistant Cook County State’s Attorney Erin Antonietti responded. 
 
 Nicholl had received supervision for a similar incident in 2009. 
 
 That charge, however, was a misdemeanor. 
 
 Now, Nicholl is charged with one felony count of unlawful interference with a public utility for his alleged actions between the Loyola and Granville stops Tuesday. 
 
 “He’s pretty much in shock. He’s devastated,” Nicholl’s attorney, Charles Lauer, said following his client’s brief court appearance. 
 
 Lauer said Nicholl may have engaged in “anti-social behavior” because of his irritation of people using their cellphones on public transit but he had “no malicious intent.” 
 
 Nicholl takes the train to work everyday, Lauer said. 
 
 “He might have been selfish in thinking about himself,” the defense attorney said. 
 
 With help from CTA authorities and a 911 call, undercover officers observed Nicholl using the jamming device. 
 
 Authorities had been investigating complaints from passengers about cellphone reception on trains, according to police. 
 
 When they set up their surveillance, officers observed Nicholl, of the 1000 block of West Loyola Avenue, using an object that had five antennas, Antonietti said. 
 
 An officer who dialed a number noticed that his call had dropped and the police radio was also disabled by the cellphone jammer, Antonietti said. 
 
 Nicholl was arrested without incident and told officers he used the cellphone jammer because he was “annoyed” by people using their phones on the CTA, Antonietti said. 
 
 According to police, he told them he knows the device is illegal in the United States, and he had his shipped from overseas. A previous order had been confiscated at the border, he told officers. 
 
 Nicholl has his MBA and has worked as a CPA for the last 30 years, Lauer said. He currently works as a CPA for a medical college. 
 
 Nicholl is listed as a financial analyst/planner supervisor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. 
 
 His siblings who were in court Wednesday declined to comment. 

 Aaron Robison was commuting home from work last fall on the Brown Line when an older man carrying a plastic bag of Old Style beer took a seat across from him. 
 
 The man opened a beer and surveyed the car, scowling as he saw another rider talking on a cellphone a few feet away, Robison said. He watched as the man pulled a clunky black device topped with five antennas from his pocket and switched it on. 
 
 Almost instantly, commuters who had been talking on their phones went silent, checking their screens for the source of their dropped calls, Robison said. 
 
 On Tuesday, undercover officers arrested the man who had allegedly created his own personal quiet car in recent months with an illegal device he imported from China, according to Cook County prosecutors and Chicago police. 
 
 An attorney for Dennis Nicholl, 63, a certified public accountant, said his client wanted only some peace and quiet on his commute from his North Side home to the University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System, where officials confirmed he works as a financial analyst. 
 
 "He's disturbed by people talking around him," attorney Charles Lauer said after a judge set bail at $10,000 while dubbing Nicholl "the cellphone police." "He might have been selfish in thinking about himself, but he didn't have any malicious intent." 
 
 Records provided by the Federal Communications Commission show that the regulator has issued citations mostly for people attempting to sell the illegal jamming devices on Craigslist. But in at least one case, a Florida resident was hit with a $48,000 fine for using a cellphone jamming device as he commuted daily around Tampa. The offender told officials he wanted to prevent motorists from using their cellphones while driving. 
 
 CTA riders had been complaining for months about dropped calls on the train before Dennis Nicholl was arrested for allegedly using a jamming device to interfere with cellphone calls on a Red Line train. March 9, 2016. (CBS Chicago) CTA riders had been complaining for months about dropped calls on the train before Dennis Nicholl was arrested for allegedly using a jamming device to interfere with cellphone calls on a Red Line train. March 9, 2016. (CBS Chicago) SEE MORE VIDEOS 
 
 A CTA spokeswoman said Nicholl's arrest appears to mark the first for using a cellphone jamming device on the transit system. 
 
 Photos of Nicholl holding the device on CTA trains had circulated online for months. Police had been tipped to the individual months ago and had obtained his photo. On Tuesday, a team of undercover officers conducting surveillance saw Nicholl enter the Loyola station on the Red Line. 
 
 He was arrested a short time later after he switched on the device as an undercover officer near him spoke on his cellphone on a southbound train, according to an arrest report. The officer's call was dropped, the report said. 
 
 Nicholl's family members declined to comment, but a co-worker expressed surprise that the financial planner he described as timid and not very social had been arrested. 
 
 "He's a harmless guy — he wouldn't want to hurt anyone," said Bobby Chacko, also a financial planner for the hospital. 
 
 Chicago Police Department Dennis Nicholl, 63, faces felony charges of interfering with cellphone calls using a signal jamming device after undercover officers said they caught him using the device March 8, 2016, on the CTA Red Line, police said. Dennis Nicholl, 63, faces felony charges of interfering with cellphone calls using a signal jamming device after undercover officers said they caught him using the device March 8, 2016, on the CTA Red Line, police said. (Chicago Police Department) (Chicago Police Department) 
 
 Nicholl had never been a tyrant about noise around the workplace, according to Chacko. 
 
 Robison and another rider who had witnessed Nicholl's antics on the train in the past reacted to his arrest with a mixture of amusement and relief. Both said they had worried that the jamming device would prevent 911 calls from going through or could interfere with CTA's communication systems. 
 
 "I think he liked the feeling of being in control of the car," said Robison, who is also an accountant. "It's kind of a digital 'stay off my lawn, you young people with your cellphones.'" 
 
 The other rider, Brian Raida, 30, said he was on his morning Red Line commute to his IT job in 2014 when he saw Nicholl on the train holding a device with multiple antennas on top. Suddenly, his phone lost service. 
 
 "Everyone was looking at their phones like — what the hell?" Raida said. 
 
 Raida snapped a photo of Nicholl with a bulky device on his lap, and it eventually made its way onto social media. He also provided police with the photo and made a complaint that same day, Raida said. 
 
 And he confronted Nicholl as he got off the train, telling him, "Hey dude, nice jammer," Raida said. 
 
 "He kind of looked at me and grinned," Raida said. 
 
 Chicago police teamed up with the FCC and the CTA to track down Nicholl. Armed with a photograph taken by a CTA passenger of the suspect holding in his hand what appeared to be a black electronic device with multiple antennas, an undercover "mission team" set up at the Loyola stop on the Red Line at 6 a.m. Tuesday. 
 
 A little more than an hour later, an undercover officer followed Nicholl onto the train. The plainclothes officer situated himself near Nicholl and immediately made a call on his personal cellphone, according to the arrest report. 
 
 The officer saw Nicholl remove a black electronic device with multiple antennas from his pocket and push a button on it, police said. The officer immediately lost his signal and the call dropped, police said. 
 
 After the train stopped at the Granville platform, Nicholl was taken into custody by officers. He was holding the jamming device in his hand, police said. 
 
 Nicholl admitted using the jamming device because "he gets annoyed at people talking on their cell phones while riding on the CTA," the arrest report said. 
 
 Nicholl, of the 1000 block of West Loyola Avenue, was charged with unlawful interference with a public utility, a felony. 
 
 This is not the first time Nicholl has been charged with jamming cell calls. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge in June 2009, according to court records. He was placed under court supervision for a year, and his equipment was confiscated and destroyed. 
 
 Robison had some simple advice for Nicholl to make his future commutes on the CTA more pleasant. 
 
 "He should just use headphones," he said. 
 
 sschmadeke@tribpub.com 
 
 Twitter @SteveSchmadeke
– Dennis Nicholl, 63, was arrested in Chicago last Tuesday and accused of operating his "own personal quiet car" on the city's trains by employing a cellphone jammer, the Chicago Tribune reports. Nicholl, a CPA who works for the University of Illinois, apparently disliked having to listen to people talk on their cellphones as he commuted to and from work each day. So, police say, he got an illegal jamming device from China and started using it on the train. One fellow commuter says he once saw Nicholl "scowl" at a man talking on a phone near him, then pull a device with five antennas from his pocket and turn it on; everyone who had been talking on their phones in the vicinity stared, bewildered, at the screens as the calls dropped. Pictures of Nicholl and the device started making the rounds online, and police had been tipped off and had gotten Nicholl's photo. On March 8, undercover officers set up a sting, saw Nicholl enter a station, and had one officer follow him on to the train. As Nicholl rode the Red Line, he allegedly switched on the device while the officer talked on the phone nearby. The officer lost the connection (his police radio was jammed, too, reports the Sun-Times), and Nicholl was arrested. "It's kind of a digital 'stay off my lawn, you young people with your cellphones,'" the aforementioned commuter tells the Tribune. Per the police report, Nicholl confessed to using the device because "he gets annoyed at people" on their phones on the train. Nicholl, who had already been charged with misdemeanor jamming of cellphone calls back in 2009, was charged with a felony this time around: unlawful interference with a public utility. But, as the Christian Science Monitor reports, some online commenters consider Nicholl a "folk hero" for keeping trains quiet.