Surveillance videos sent to CWBChicago recently by two people in different neighborhoods appear to show the same burglar using a pry tool to force his way into homes during daylight hours.
The footage comes as some neighborhoods see pretty sharp increases in forcible-entry burglaries as residents put COVID’s work-from-home lifestyle behind them. Take a look:
In one of the clips, recorded near Clybourn and Sheffield on October 20, a man wearing a White Sox baseball hat with a gold sticker on the brim walks up to a home’s front door and tries to pry his way in. A look-out sits at the bottom of the stairs behind him.
Their efforts failed. As the duo walks away, you can see the Sox hat and its gold sticker.
Over the weekend, a different resident sent us another video. This one was recorded last week on the 1000 block of West Monroe in the West Loop.
There’s that hat again. And this footage lets you see the pry tool in action. Unfortunately, he was successful this time.
Burglaries nose-dived across the city last year as prowlers found it more challenging to find unoccupied homes. And the number of cases this year is down 32% compared to 2020.
But detectives have identified a set of new patterns that suggest prowlers are getting back to work. West Loop and Fulton Market are being hit. Lakeview saw 23 burglaries during the first 24 days of October. The area had only nine during those same days last year. In Lincoln Park, burglaries during that period doubled from 8 to 16.
It may seem like there’s not much you can do to prevent a committed person from breaking into your home with a crowbar in the middle of the day. But, as the two videos demonstrate, high-quality locks and doors can motivate a burglar to walk away and try something easier.
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