An accused serial burglar and thief has been sentenced to probation for a burglary in Lincoln Park last year — even though he was already on probation for two burglaries at the time of the alleged break-in.
Jonathan Hernandez, 26, pleaded guilty to one count of theft in exchange for an 18-month probation sentence in the latest case, according to court records. He has been arrested seventeen times in Chicago since March 2014, according to CPD records.
Hernandez was most recently arrested on the 800 block of West Belmont in September 2019 by cops who noticed his distinctive shoes looked a lot like the shoes they saw in surveillance images of a burglar who stole a bike from a garage on the 2500 block of North Wayne a couple of weeks earlier. One of the officers who spotted Hernandez’s fancy shoes also recognized him from a previous burglary arrest, according to CPD records.
One year before his arrest, Hernandez was charged with threatening to shoot an off-duty police officer who confronted him as he allegedly burglarized the cop’s garage on the 3600 block of North Bell.
“I have a gun. I know where you live,” Hernandez allegedly told the officer. “Where do you work?”
Needless to say, Hernandez found out where the officer worked and he later pleaded guilty to the break-in as well as another in Lincoln Square. In February 2019, Judge Catherine Haberkorn gave him a sentence of 18 months probation on a reduced charge of theft.
Shortly before his encounter with the off-duty cop, Hernandez unsatisfactorily completed two-year’s probation that he received for stealing a bike from a garage in the 2600 block of North Mildred in April 2016, according to court records.
In another case, Hernandez was stopped by cops near Belmont and Sheffield after witnesses allegedly saw him cutting locks off of a bicycle outside of Ann Sather Restaurant, 909 W. Belmont, in June 2016.
When officers approached Hernandez, he hopped off the bike and blurted out, “It’s not mine. I just stole it,” police said.
He was given a two day sentence in that matter.
