An Indiana man who burglarized Wrigley Field and got caught because he scrawled his roommate’s contact information on a stadium wall has received probation. Daniel Smith, 50, also received probation for burglarizing a boat at Montrose Harbor a couple of weeks after his intrusion at the Friendly Confines.
It all started on July 29 of last year when Smith scaled a fence at the stadium around 2:40 a.m. after a security guard refused to let him inside. He made his way to a gift shop where he allegedly stole a $299 jersey and then used a Sharpie marker to leave a message on the wall:
“To whom it may concern, your security in this building is laughable. Call me, and I will tell you where your weaknesses are.”
He signed the message with the name and phone number of Smith’s roommate, prosecutors said.
As you might have guessed, police called the phone number and met with the roommate, who said Smith was probably the culprit, according to the state’s allegations. The roommate identified Smith in a surveillance photo that cops secured from the stadium.
About ten days after the burglary, Smith flagged down a cop in the Loop and asked for a ride. The officer ran his name through a database and arrested him after seeing that he was wanted for burglarizing the stadium, prosecutors said.
Police said Smith admitted to scaling the fence and said, “it was a dream come true.” He also again advised the Cubs to “beef up their security.”
Smith posted $1,000 to get out of jail. Everything went really well until two weeks later when he was arrested for burglarizing a boat at Montrose Harbor.
Police found Smith near the dock’s gate with a cooler sitting next to him, prosecutors said. The cooler allegedly contained a necklace, shoes, and tablets. Smith admitted to boarding the boat and drinking alcohol while he was aboard, according to prosecutors. The boat’s owner identified the items inside the cooler as his property.
Smith has now pleaded guilty to the two burglaries in exchange for a sentence of two years probation. It is not clear which judge handled sentencing because the judge listed in court records retired months earlier. Smith also pleaded guilty to damaging a microwave in the county jail. The judge gave him two years probation for that, too.
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