How A Ruse Burglary Happened In Western Springs

WESTERN SPRINGS, IL — Late the afternoon of July 20, a man showed up at a resident's door in the 3800 block of Lawn Avenue claiming to be a landscaper. He asked the 83-year-old woman to go into her backyard, so they could discuss a neighbor's landscaping project, police said.

The woman agreed to meet the man out back. For about 15 minutes, the man told the woman about how the neighbor's project would affect her yard, according to a police report that Patch obtained through a public records request. The man said the woman would need to have her yard leveled.

Late in their conversation, the woman heard a person speaking on the man's two-way radio, but she could not make it out, the report said. She told the man she would need to speak with her neighbor about the project first. At that point, the man told her he needed to leave. He returned to his white pickup truck parked in her driveway and drove away.

After going back into the house, the woman suspected someone else had entered it while she was outside, according to the police report. She noticed the front door was open, even though she had closed it. She told police she also noticed a jewelry drawer in her bedroom had been removed from the dresser and left on her bed, police said. She did not call police at that time.

Two days later, the woman discovered her black lockbox containing various important papers had been stolen from her bedroom, the report said. It had been on the floor, tucked away in a corner. The lockbox contained her Social Security card, birth certificate, marriage license and living will, police said. With her lockbox gone, she called police.

The woman told police she did not see anyone else with the man, but suspected at least one other person was in the pickup truck. She described the man as appearing Hispanic, standing 5 feet, 3 inches, having a medium build and wearing a blue uniform.

No surveillance cameras were seen near the woman's house. An officer canvassed the neighborhood, the report said.

The resident was advised to monitor her credit activity and accounts because of the sensitive information that had been stolen.

The crime is known as a ruse burglary in which one person distracts the homeowner while another enters the house and commits theft.