3 Sleeping Car Burglars Awakened By Police: JPD

JOLIET, IL — Two Romeoville residents and a young man from Hammond are now staying in the Will County Jail after Joliet Police say they were responsible for a slew of car burglaries and break-ins throughout the Joliet area. Shortly before 8 a.m. on Sunday, someone notified Joliet's Police Department to check out a suspicious car parked on Baring Ridge Drive, which is in the Plainfield area.

Officers found three men, all sound asleep, and they were still wearing their burglary masks and burglary gloves, police said. Police also found the men had been smoking marijuana inside their car, reports show. The three men were ordered out of the vehicle, and police officers retrieved a gun from Dequan Kohnke, 23, of Hammond, Ind., reports indicate.

Joliet Police say they searched the car and found proceeds from several car burglaries.

Kohnke was charged with seven counts of possession of stolen property and one count of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon.

His two accomplices, police said, were Ed Lewis, 18, of Romeoville and Montee Simpson, 22, of Romeoville. Lewis was charged with seven counts of possession of stolen property and one count of burglary to a motor vehicle.

Simpson was charged with seven counts of possession of stolen property. Their crimes happened in Joliet, Oswego, North Aurora and Kane County, the Joliet Police Department announced.