Law and Order, Local Police Reports, Park Forest

Unlocked Cars Invite Burglars in Park Forest


Park Forest, IL-(ENEWSPF)- This burglary dispatch shows that multiple cars were entered and things were taken because, in many cases, the automobiles were left unlocked. Burglars love unlocked cars.

It’s so easy to do: to lock the door. It’s also easy to forget to lock the door.

We encourage the former. How easy it is sometimes to forget to press the key fob.

4/3/19 9:31: Burglary to Motor Vehicle

On April 3 at approximately 9:31 AM officers responded to a report of a burglary from a motor vehicle. Officers spoke with a woman who related that her husband had found their vehicle rummaged through after having moved where it was parked. The woman related that both her wallet and Fitbit were missing.

Officers processed the vehicle and pulled four latent prints from the exterior of the driver door. The woman was notified that her credit card had been used in an attempt to purchase an Uber ride. She wishes to pursue charges.

4/4/19 14:56: Residential Burglary

On April 4 at 2:56 PM officers were dispatched to the 200 block of Early Street in reference to a residential burglary report. Upon arrival to the scene, officers met with a resident who related he had just returned from school and noticed several items out of place in his room.

Officers conducted a walk-thru of the house and checked for suspects. The officers noticed several disturbances in the house, one being the padlock leading to the resident’s room had been broken. As of now, nothing has been noted as missing.

4/7/19 10:05: Burglary to Motor Vehicle

On April 7 at 10:05 AM officers were dispatched to the 10 block of Bailey Road to investigate a delayed report of a burglary to a motor vehicle. Officers spoke with a woman who related that she had gone to her car only to realize someone had been inside of it. She said that several items had been strewn about the passenger seat and the floorboards and she noticed several items had been removed from her glove compartment.

The woman told officers that she did not have any video surveillance. Officers processed the vehicle and did not locate any latent fingerprints and nothing of evidentiary value was collected. No suspect information is available at this time.

4/7/19 12:26: Burglary to Motor Vehicle

On April 7 at 12:26 PM officers were dispatched to the 10 block of Bender Road to investigate a delayed report of a burglary to a motor vehicle. Upon arrival, officers spoke to the complainant who related that she had noticed someone had gone through her vehicle. The back passenger seats seemed to be in order, however, the front seats were not how they usually were.

The complainant related that she had left nothing of value inside the unlocked vehicle but that she did notice a ten dollar bill that had been ripped in half was missing. Officers processed the vehicle and did not observe any signs of forced entry. No suspect information exists at this time.

4/7/19 13:15: Burglary to Motor Vehicle

On April 7 at 1:15 officers were dispatched to 10 block of Bender Road to investigate a report of a burglary to a motor vehicle. Officers observed two vehicles, a gray Ford Escape, and a white Ford Focus, bearing no registration, that appeared to have been tampered with. The officer attempted to contact the resident but there was no answer. Later the resident was contacted again and was informed of the vehicles’ state.

Officers observed that in the Ford Focus the glove compartment was open and several items were strewn around the vehicle. On the same date, the officer was also apprised of several other incidents with similar circumstances. The owner of the vehicles assessed them and reported that nothing appeared to be missing and that he would not be interested in pursuing criminal complaints. No suspect information exists at this time.

4/7/19 15:07: Criminal Trespass to Motor Vehicle

On April 7 at 3:07 PM officers were dispatched to the 100 block of Dogwood Street to investigate a delayed report of criminal trespass to a motor vehicle. Upon arrival, the officers spoke with the complainant who related that she had only discovered someone had been inside her vehicle that day. She stated that she had left her vehicle unlocked, but did not notice anything missing and had not noticed anyone in her parking lot that seemed suspicious.

The complainant had already cleaned her vehicle before police arrived, and officers observed nothing of evidentiary value. She related that she would not be interested in pursuing criminal complaints. No suspect information is available at this time.

4/7/19 15:53: Criminal Trespass to Motor Vehicle

On April 7 at approximately 3:53 PM officers responded to the 20 block of Bailey Road to investigate a delayed report of criminal trespass to a motor vehicle. Upon arrival, officers spoke with the complainant who stated that when he came out to his vehicle he noticed several compartments in his vehicle were open and that items inside his vehicle had been rummaged through. The complainant related that he leaves his car unlocked, but did not believe anything in the vehicle was missing.

The complainant said that he would be willing to sign complaints charging tampering with a motor vehicle should an alleged offender be identified. Officers processed the vehicle and observed no signs of forced entry to the vehicle. No suspect information is available at this time.

4/7/19 18:10: Criminal Trespass to Motor Vehicle

On April 7 at 6:10 PM officers were dispatched to Bender Road in reference to criminal trespass to a vehicle. Upon arrival, officers spoke with a woman who related that she noticed her vehicle had been rummaged through. Nothing appeared to be missing and there was no damage to the vehicle.

Officers did not observe anything of evidentiary value. There is no suspect information available at this time.

4/18/19 6:51: Burglary to Motor Vehicle

Officers were dispatched to the 400 block of Tomahawk Street on April 18 in reference to a delayed burglary to a motor vehicle. Officers spoke with the complainant who related that at approximately 6:45 AM his son had told him that the driver side doors of their vehicles were ajar.

Upon further inspection, the complainant discovered nothing was taken from either vehicle. The complainant told officers he keeps his car unlocked but leaves nothing of value inside. He stated he wished to have the incident documented in case it could be of any help if an arrest is made.

There is no suspect information available at this time.

4/18/19 8:31: Burglary to Motor Vehicle

On April 18 at 8:31 AM, officers were dispatched to the 200 block of Tampa Street to investigate a burglary to a motor vehicle. Upon arrival to the scene, officers spoke with a woman who related that she had discovered someone had gone through her vehicle during the night and taken an unknown amount of money. She stated she had left her vehicle unlocked and that there was no damage to it.

The woman stated that if an arrest was made she would be willing to sign criminal complainants. Nothing of evidentiary value was discovered at the scene and officers were unable to locate any surveillance cameras. No further information is available at this time.

4/18/19 13:57: Burglary to Motor Vehicle

On April 18 at 1:57 PM, officers were dispatched to the 200 block of Tampa Street in reference to a burglary from a motor vehicle. Officers spoke with a woman who related that she had gone out to her vehicle to find it ransacked. She stated that the only thing taken was some loose change which she approximated to be about $6.00.

The woman stated she would be willing to sign complainants if an arrest was made. Officers were unable to locate anything of evidentiary value and were unable to locate any surveillance cameras. There is no suspect information available at this time.

4/22/19 22:34: Burglary to Motor Vehicle

On April 22 at approximately 10:34 PM, officers were dispatched to the 300 block of Westgate for the report of a burglary to a motor vehicle. Officers spoke with the complainant who advised that he had noticed the front driver’s side door was cracked open and the interior light was on. He looked through his car and noticed that a bag containing hand tools valued at approximately $800 was missing from the trunk.

He stated he had left the vehicle unlocked in his driveway the night prior.

Nothing of evidentiary value was located and there were no security cameras on the residence. There is currently no suspect information.

4/22/19 22:57: Burglary to Motor Vehicle

On April 22 at approximately 10:57, officers responded to a reported burglary to a motor vehicle on the 400 block of Watseka Street. Officers spoke with the complainants who related that loose change and IDs that were in an empty wallet were missing from their car.

A neighbor had cameras posted at his residence and upon reviewing the recordings, located a subject on April 21 pulling on car door handles parked on the street around 3:30 AM. However, the neighbor was unable to show the tape to the police since his children were asleep. Another neighbor located the complainant’s ID in her front lawn. There is no suspect information at this time.

4/23/19 10:55: Trespass to Vehicle

On April 23 at approximately 10:55, officers responded to the 100 block of Warwick Street for a report of a motor vehicle-delayed. Officers met with a woman who related that she had walked to her car to notice that all her doors were slightly open. When she looked inside the vehicle she saw the glove compartment and the center console open, with papers on the passenger seat. She noticed nothing missing from her vehicle.

The woman related to officers that the seal on the front passenger side door was ripped. Officers lifted two latent fingerprints from the front passenger door handle and door frame. The woman stated she wished to pursue charges and claimed that she believed she had an idea of who might have done this and shared that information with police.

4/24/19 6:00: Burglary to Motor Vehicle

On April 24 at approximately 5:50 AM, a woman in the 500 block of Wildwood Drive noticed that her car door was slightly ajar in her driveway after having left her residence to retrieve her wallet that she had left in the car earlier.

The woman inspected the interior of the vehicle and noted that her wallet was missing from her driver door, as well as that her belongings were scattered around on her front driver and passenger seats. Nothing else inside the vehicle appeared to be missing or disturbed.

Nothing of evidentiary value was located inside the vehicle and there were no signs of forced entry. The woman stated that she would like the incident documented only.

4/24/19 8:42: Burglary to Motor Vehicle

On April 24 at approximately 6:41 AM, a man left his residence and entered his car without noticing right away that it had been burglarized and drove away from his property. While driving, he noticed that a door chime was alerting him that his passenger door was open. Upon further inspection, he noticed that the black backpack containing a CD, gym shorts, an iPhone charger, and phone case was missing from the front passenger floor.

The man returned home shortly after and observed that his backpack was lying next to a light pole on the 300 block of Winona Street. The iPhone charger and several other items were lying in the grass around the backpack. The man wished to sign complaints if police located the person allegedly responsible for burglary to his vehicle.

The man provided officers with video surveillance of cameras installed at his residence, and officers observed a man on the driveway at approximately 4 AM enter the property and enter the vehicle without permission.

The suspect was described as a man with a goatee, between 5’06” and 5’09”, wearing a black jacket, light-colored “hoodie” pulled over his face, baggy light colored pants, and multi-colored shoes.

4/28/19: Burglary to Motor Vehicle

On Sunday, April 28 at approximately 10 AM, officers responded to the 400 block of Winnemac Street in reference to a burglary to a motor vehicle. Officers spoke with two men who advised two vehicles had been burglarized earlier that morning.

Officers inspected the cars and were able to obtain one latent fingerprint from a white Ford F-50 and one from a white Toyota Corolla.

One of the men supplied video surveillance to officers. The officers observed a black male with a multicolored jacket walking Westbound on Winnemac Street pulling on vehicle door handles at approximately 3:32 AM. No further information is available at this time.

Edited by Gary Kopycinski.


ARCHIVES