Riverside police arrested two juveniles last week for breaking in to unlocked vehicles and taking items from them, but are warning residents that a separate vehicle burglary crew appears still to be operating within the village.
Two boys, a 14 year old from Riverside and a 16 year old from Brookfield, were petitioned to juvenile authorities after police connected them to a vehicle burglary in the 300 block of Shenstone Road on Dec. 22.
At 9:44 p.m. an officer on patrol noticed a boy dressed in black walking in the 100 block of South Delaplaine. The boy appeared to be lighting something on fire. When approached by the officer, the boy put the item, which turned out to be a checkbook belonging to a Riverside resident, in his jacket pocket.
The boy told police he found the checkbook and, initially, the owner of the checkbook believed it could have fallen out of his pocket. At 11 p.m., however, that same resident called police to report his vehicle had been burglarized and that a global positioning system unit, three cologne bottles, an iPod charger and 10 CDs were missing. He also remembered that he had left his checkbook in the center console of the vehicle.
Police went to the home of the boy they had stopped previously. The boy reportedly admitted stealing the checkbook and implicated a friend. Police Chief Thomas Weitzel said that the boys were involved in burglarizing four vehicles on Dec. 21 and 22.
Weitzel said the boys were not involved in several other burglaries reported in the village during the past week.
On Dec.22, Riverside police reported that three garages in the vicinity of the 300 block of Blackhawk Road were broken into. In at least two of those instances, the garages were locked and the burglars forced their way in. Once inside, they shattered windows of cars parked inside and removed cash and other items.
Weitzel said a few other similar burglaries along Kent Road were reported to police on Dec. 26.
Surprise find under floor
A man doing some renovation work on his home in the 3600 block of Morton Avenue, Brookfield, on Dec. 24 pulled up some floor boards on the back porch and revealed four World War II-vintage artillery shells.
According to the police officer who responded to the scene, the shells were about a foot long and weighed about 25 pounds apiece. The olive drab shells bore bright yellow block lettering on them indicating they were tracer rounds and were manufactured in 1944, said the officer, who called the Cook County bomb squad.
The county officers indicated the shells were artillery training rounds. They removed the shells for proper disposal.
Bullet fired through living room window
On Dec. 19, a resident of the 9000 block of 23rd Street, North Riverside, noticed damage to a section of drywall between the living room and dining room of his home. The mystery was solved a few days later, on Dec. 23, when the man discovered a 9 mm bullet on the living room carpet.
The man then went to the living room window and discovered a hole in the double-pane glass, apparently made by the bullet.
The man told police the bullet may have been fired through the window on Dec. 18 when he and his wife weren’t home. Police said they would send the bullet to the crime lab for ballistics testing.
Apartment burglarized
A tenant in an apartment building in the 9100 block of Cermak Road, North Riverside, reported to police that between noon and 4 p.m. on Dec. 20 someone entered her apartment and removed two 19-inch LCD televisions, six pairs of earrings and one bracelet.
According to the police report, the tenant returned home and found pry marks near the door lock. Someone in the apartment building told police that earlier in the day a woman was seen inside the building asking for someone who didn’t live there. Police surmise the woman may have been casing the building for an unoccupied apartment.
These items were obtained from police reports filed by the Riverside, North Riverside and Brookfield police departments from Dec. 20 to Dec. 26 and represent a portion of the incidents to which police responded. Unless otherwise indicated, anybody named in these reports has only been charged with a crime. These cases have not been adjudicated.
– compiled by Bob Uphues
