CHICAGO — An Edgewater man managed to get arrested for package theft last week and then get arrested for package theft again barely 12 hours after he walked out of the police station.
Cops arrested Sammy Batom, 60, around 7:51 p.m. on February 10 after a witness recognized him as the person who stole items from their building, not far from Batom’s home in the 5700 block of North Sheridan, according to Chicago police records.
The police released him about five hours later after filing misdemeanor charges of theft, criminal trespassing, and criminal damage to property.
Just over 12 hours later, cops arrested Batom again after another building manager allegedly saw him stealing packages from their Edgewater apartment complex. Cops responded to the building in the 5700 block of North Sheridan and spoke with the manager. She told them she saw him stealing packages, prompting him to identify himself as “Michael Jackson” as he dropped the packages and walked away, a CPD report said.
Officers arrested Batom nearby. The building manager told the police she had surveillance video of Batom stealing packages on January 6 and February 3, too, the report said. She told officers that Batom uses a screwdriver to pry his way into buildings.
Prosecutors asked Judge Luciano Panici, Jr. to keep Batom in jail, but he opted to send him home on electronic monitoring instead.
Court records show Batom has faced 96 separate criminal cases in Cook County since 1987, including 14 felony matters.
Most recently, he received three months of court supervision for retail theft in July 2023. Prosecutors dropped another retail theft case last November and a criminal trespass to vehicle charge in December.
His felony convictions include a 1987 burglary, a 1988 robbery, and narcotics-related charges in 1991, 1992, 1994, 1995, 2002, 2004, and 2006.
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