Riverside Residents:
I wanted to inform you that on Christmas Eve at about 11:30 p.m., Riverside Police officers, with the cooperation of a victim of a car burglary, made an arrest on a Chicago resident.
Police were investigating a burglary to a motor vehicle on the 200 block of Woodside when officers, working with the victim, were able to ping the offenders iPhone throughout the village.
The victim accompanied the officer in the police vehicle and traveled throughout the village pinging the phone of the offender. While they were doing this, they spotted the subject a short distance from the original burglary scene. The officer then engaged in a foot pursuit that went through numerous front and rear yards along Michaux, Nuttall, Bartram, and then took the suspect into custody at the 300 block of North Delaplaine.
Arresed was a 52-year-old male offender living on the 1300 block of South Komensky Avenue in Chicago. He rode a stolen bike from Chicago to Riverside, parked the bike at Hauser Central School, and then walked the area committing burglaries to motor vehicles, stealing anything he could from inside of unlocked vehicles that were parked in driveways.
The male was charged with two counts of felony burglary to motor vehicle. Police recovered stolen property from other victims and charges will be added at a later date during a grand jury hearing.
This arrest would not have been possible without the direct cooperation of the victim and two alert Riverside police officers who assisted in tracking the iPhone and pursuing the offender on foot throughout the village.
I always encourage residents to call the police department's 9-1-1 center if they observe any suspicious activity, noise, or people. This is a textbook example of outstanding police/citizen cooperation that ended up taking a habitual burglary offender into custody.
Respectfully,
Thomas Weitzel
Chief of Police