Brookfield police say a vehicle observed on doorbell camera video pulling into the driveway of a home that was burglarized in the 4400 block of 44th Place on the afternoon of March 9 has been linked to several other burglaries throughout the Chicago suburbs.
According to police, a silver Chevy Traverse was captured pulling into the home’s driveway at about 4:40 p.m. A man is seen exiting the rear driver’s side door before the video ends.
The homeowners reported to police at 5:10 p.m. that they had arrived home to find the rear door to their residence had been forced open and that several rooms had been ransacked, with multiple items missing, including jewelry, cash, checks and other bank documents.
As part of their investigation, Brookfield police reported learning the same vehicle seen pulling into the victim’s driveway had been used in burglaries in Lincolnshire, Park Ridge, Hickory Hills, Rolling Meadows and Palatine Township.
A resident of the 3200 block of Grand Boulevard called police to report that sometime overnight on March 9-10 someone tampered with two screen windows on the east side of his home.
According to the police report, the screens had been slid toward the middle, and there was damage along the screen’s frame. The main windows were locked and no entry was made to the home. No other screens appeared to have been tampered with.
Facebook Bitcoin scam
A 50-year-old Brookfield woman was scammed out of about $3,600 earlier this month after someone posing as a high school classmate contacted her on Facebook Messenger about investing in a Bitcoin scheme that promised a $1,500 return on a $100 investment.
The scammer reportedly gave as proof an image of the classmate’s Illinois ID and built enough trust that the victim sent payments of $100 and $900. When the immediate payouts didn’t come, the scammer asked for more money, citing various fees and the victim sent a total of $3,580 to various CashApp accounts and a Bitcoin wallet.
When the scammer asked for a final $200 “for the government,” the victim said she was going to police.
Their investigation revealed that the victim’s high school classmate had her Facebook account hacked after falling for a similar Bitcoin scam, telling police she had sent the scammer images of herself and her state ID.
Smash and grab
An employee at Skadarliya, 9237 Ogden Ave. in Brookfield, called police on March 9 at about 9:15 p.m. to report that someone had burglarized his car, which was parked in the lot outside the restaurant.
According to police, the burglary was captured on a security camera video, which showed a silver Mazda pull into the parking lot at about 7:35 p.m. A man wearing a ski mask, ball cap and yellow reflective vest with the work “Bailey” on it gets out of the Mazda and checks out another vehicle in the parking lot before looking inside the victim’s vehicle.
The man then is seen going back to his vehicle and retrieving an object which he uses to break out the front passenger side window and rear driver’s side window, taking from the interior a black backpack and a black gym bag. The man then gets back into the Mazda and drives off.
According to police, the license plate on the Mazda registered to a Chicago resident who had reported his license plate stolen in January. Video capturing that theft showed the offender getting out of a silver Mazda.
These items were obtained from police reports filed by the Riverside, North Riverside and Brookfield police departments, March 6-12, 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
