Brookfield police have charged a 27-year-old Chicago man with one residential burglary and continue to investigate his possible connection to other incidents reported recently in the village.
Michael A. Cordero was arrested by members of the Major Case Assistance Team (MCAT) task force on the morning of Feb. 28 in Berwyn, shortly after he and an accomplice reportedly burglarized a home in Forest Park.
MCAT officers began to conduct surveillance on a gold Jeep Cherokee, owned by Cordero, after the vehicle was captured on surveillance video leaving the scene of a residential burglary in 4400 block of Deyo Avenue on Feb. 21.
The same vehicle was also captured on video leaving the scene of a burglary in the 3800 block of Harrison Avenue in Brookfield on Feb. 16. The Jeep was also seen in the area of a burglary in the 3600 block of Arthur Avenue that same day, according to police.
Police also believe the vehicle was connected to a Feb. 16 suspicious person complaint in the 9400 block of Monroe Avenue and three Feb. 21 suspicious person complaints in the 4100 block of Deyo Avenue, the 4100 block of Raymond Avenue and the 4200 block of DuBois Boulevard.
Investigators traced the vehicle to Cordero, who lives in the 1400 block of Washtenaw in Chicago and has an extensive criminal history, including arrests for burglary, according to police.
On Feb. 28, police trailed Cordero’s Jeep Cherokee from Chicago to Brookfield, where it circled the 4300 block of Madison Avenue several times at about 10 a.m. before leaving the village eastbound on Ogden Avenue at about 10:12 a.m.
Police learned from a resident of the 4300 block of Madison Avenue that a suspicious man on crutches had knocked on the door, asking for someone who didn’t live there. The person on crutches was Cordero, said police, who suffered a gunshot wound to the leg in Chicago in a prior incident.
Officers followed the Jeep Cherokee to Forest Park, where the vehicle began circling the 900 block of Thomas Avenue at about 11 a.m. As the Jeep left the area, an officer observed that a glass rear door to a home in the 900 block of Thomas Avenue had been shattered and rooms inside the home had been ransacked.
Police stopped the Jeep at about 11:50 a.m. in the 1500 block of Wesley Avenue in Berwyn, where they arrested Cordero and another Chicago man, who was a passenger in the vehicle. Burglary charges are pending against the two men in Forest Park.
According to a press release issued by Police Chief James Episcopo, three other burglaries reported in the village since late January remain under investigation pending crime lab evidence testing.
In the meantime, Episcopo thanked residents for reporting suspicious activity to police.
“This is a team effort and we appreciate our residents’ involvement in maintaining awareness on what’s going on in our community,” Episcopo said in the press release.
