CHICAGO — Hardly a week goes by without the Chicago Police Department issuing a new warning about burglars breaking into the city’s businesses, especially restaurants and bars. So far this year, more restaurants have been burglarized than in any year since at least 2001, which is as far back as CPD’s public data goes.
But there is some good news to report. Detectives have arrested and charged a man with committing six restaurant and bar burglaries since July, but he’s suspected of committing many more.
His name is Traivon Dorsey. The 29-year-old is currently on parole for burglarizing restaurants and bars, allegedly taking liquor worth more than $100,000 from the businesses.
Now, the state is moving to revoke his parole after prosecutors accused him of another half-dozen burglaries:
- July 11, West Town Bakery, 1916 West Chicago
- July 11, Roots Pizza, 1924 West Chicago
- November 1, The Farm, 15 West Illinois
- November 1, Mott Street, 1401 North Ashland
- November 14, The Daily, 4560 North Lincoln
- November 25, Tao, 832 North Dearborn
Police included some of those break-ins in a community alert issued on November 10. Detectives said a solo burglary was using a pry tool to enter businesses so he could take safes, cash registers, and high-end bottled alcohol.”
The alert linked the burglar to 15 burglaries from Lincoln Park to the South Loop to Ukrainian Village.
If Dorsey is sent back to prison for a parole violation, he’ll be out again soon. His full sentence ends next month. Judge William Fahy ordered him to go on an ankle monitor when he gets out of jail.
His previous restaurant and bar burglary problems began when prosecutors said he stole $24,000 of that booze during just two burglaries at River North nightclubs in December 2021. On one day, he walked through the employee entrance at Clutch, 316 West Erie, and walked out with 18 bottles of liquor in trash bags, officials said.
That Christmas, Dorsey allegedly scaled a rear staircase and used a rock to break the second-floor window of Moe’s Cantina, 155 West Kinzie. Prosecutors said he took $6,000 worth of liquor there.
Detectives later linked him to six more restaurant break-ins in River North and Old Town, with one of those businesses allegedly losing $51,700 worth of liquor.
He pleaded guilty to three cases, and prosecutors dropped the charges in exchange for a four-year sentence. State records show he arrived at prison on December 5 last year and walked out on January 9.
Prosecutors said his previous felony convictions included a 2016 theft and three residential burglaries in 2012 and 2013. He was adjudicated delinquent as a juvenile for theft in 2011, burglary in 2010, and aggravated battery in 2008.
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