Updated 12/27/2011 8:15 p.m.
Riverside police, on Dec. 20, arrested a third suspect believed to be connected to a crew of teenagers who committed a string of burglaries in that village and in North Riverside during November and December.
Property stolen from a home in the 100 block of Northgate Road was reportedly found inside the home of Quentin L. Mason, 18, who lives in the 1600 block of Kedvale Avenue, Chicago.
Riverside police charged Mason with one count of felony residential burglary. Meanwhile, North Riverside also interviewed Mason on Dec. 20 and charged him with one count of burglary.
According to police, at the time of his arrest Mason was on probation after being convicted in 2008 of armed robbery in Chicago.
Police had been searching for Mason since the Dec. 17 arrest of two Chicago teenagers in North Riverside. The two allegedly were burglarizing a home in the 2400 block of Park Avenue, North Riverside, when the owner returned home and heard a noise in the basement.
The homeowner reported seeing four people running from the area near his home and police apprehended three of them nearby. At that time, North Riverside and Riverside police charged two of those suspects, Joseph C. Green and Shaquille Wilson, both 17 years old, with multiple counts of burglary after connecting them to six residential break-ins in the villages. Although Green and Wilson are juveniles, they are being charged as adults.
North Riverside Police Chief Anthony Garvey said Mason was not the third person picked up by his officers on Dec. 17. However, police believe Mason was the one person who eluded officers that day. He was implicated in that burglary by the others, Garvey said.
On Dec. 20, Riverside police tracked Mason to the Chicago residence where he lives with his grandmother. Mason answered the door and was taken into custody without incident, police said.
Police also got permission to search Mason’s bedroom and reportedly found an iPod stolen from the Northgate Road home.
Riverside Police Chief Thomas Weitzel said that many of the items stolen in the burglaries were either sold on the street or at pawn shops in Cicero and on Chicago’s West Side.
While items sold on the street likely won’t be recovered, police will check pawn shops for stolen items in an effort to get them back to their owners.
Man attacked in North Riverside
North Riverside police are still investigating the robbery of a 40-year-old resident who claims he was jumped and beaten by two men inside his garage in the 2300 block of Hainsworth Avenue on Dec. 19.
According to the police report, the man told police he walked out to his garage around 9:30 a.m. and found the side service door open. When he walked inside the garage he found the electric garage door opener button torn from the wall and saw two men inside the building.
The victim told police he was beaten with a “stick.” Police found a red metal jack handle on the floor of the garage, along with some loose change. The man reported being robbed of $70 in cash, his cellphone and his ID card.
The victim sustained injuries to his face, back and side and was treated for those injuries at Loyola University Medical Center.
During a canvass of the neighborhood, police learned from one resident that an older model gray Lincoln Town Car was seen backing northbound in the alley about the time of the incident. Another witness told police he saw two men wearing black coats in the backyard of the victim’s residence, punching each other.
Although the investigation is ongoing, Police Chief Anthony Garvey on Dec. 22 said police don’t believe the attack was random.
“Police don’t believe this was a random act or that there’s any danger to anyone else in the neighborhood,” Garvey said.
Brookfield car break-ins
Three unlocked parked vehicles – one each in the 4500 blocks of Grove, Forest and Prairie avenues in Brookfield – were broken into sometime between Dec. 16 and 18.
Between 2 p.m. on Dec. 16 and 5 a.m. on Dec. 17 someone entered an unlocked Ford sedan parked in the 4500 block of Grove Avenue and removed a backpack and some tools.
Between 6 and 8 p.m. on Dec. 16, someone entered a Toyota SUV parked in the 4500 block of Forest Avenue and removed a Garmin GPS unit, an iPod and sunglasses from the glove compartment.
And sometime between 7 p.m. on Dec. 16 and 12:15 p.m. on Dec. 18, someone entered a Nissan sedan parked in the 4500 block of Prairie Avenue and removed a Garmin GPS unit.
These items were obtained from police reports filed by the Riverside, North Riverside and Brookfield police departments, Dec. 17-21, 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
