Burglar Bungles Break-In Across Street From Evanston Cop: Police

EVANSTON, IL — A downstate man who tried to break into an apartment across the street from an Evanston cop was arrested within minutes Wednesday, police said. Prosecutors approved burglary-related felony charges, and a judge ordered him held at Cook County Jail until he can come up with the $4,000 cash portion of his bond.

Ethan Alexander, 24, of the 200 block of East Roosevelt Avenue, Shawneetown, was arrested around 3:15 a.m. in the area of Callan Avenue and Oakton Street. About a 30 minutes earlier, an Evanston police officer stationed at the corner reported he noticed something suspicious, according to Cmdr. Ryan Glew.

A man had crossed the street began checking out a van parked at a dry cleaner in the 600 block of Oakton. But when the man noticed a marked patrol car, he turned and started walking away on Callan Avenue, the officer noted.

"While he's observing the subject, the officer received a call of an attempt burglary," Glew said.

"Even before receiving the call, he sees a person acting suspiciously," he said. "He hears the call of the attempt burglary and notifies dispatch he'd been observing a suspicious person walking from the area of the incident." The officer gave dispatchers the man's description and went to investigate the source of the 911 call.

The call had come from an apartment building the suspicious figure had been walking away from, according to Glew. A 30-year-old Evanston man who lived there reported he was awakened by car alarms and the sound of somebody in the gangway outside the bedroom window on a first-floor apartment.

The resident reportedly told police he then noticed someone trying to remove the screen to his window after getting up to make sure it was fully closed and locked.

"He immediately slammed the window shut and locked it," Glew said.

Other officers called to the scene found the suspicious person, later identified as Alexander, and discovered he had bolt cutters and a pair of window punches. He was taken into custody on a charge of possession of burglary tools as officers investigated the reported home burglary attempt.

Alexander denied trying to remove the screen, police reported. Although he admitted being in the gangway that accessed the Evanston man's bedroom window, police said he claimed he was just there to "take a piss." Alexander would later change his story from not touching the screen to admitting he bumped into it with his elbow, according to police.

Prosecutors approved charges of attempted residential burglary, a class 2 felony, and possession of burglary tools, a class 4 felony.

Alexander, who has also recently resided in the 4600 block of Sheridan Road, Chicago, has been arrested by Chicago police three times since October 2017 — twice in Uptown and once in Humboldt Park — on charges of criminal damage and trespassing, according to police.

A judge ordered him jailed in lieu of the 10 percent cash portion of a $40,000 bond ahead of his next court appearance Dec. 17 in Skokie.