Online Dating, Power Washing, $600,000 Scams: Wilmette PD Blotter

WILMETTE, IL — The following information comes from the Wilmette Police Department as a record of police activity and those arrested by police. Criminal charges represent merely accusations by the state and are often dropped or reduced. Anyone named below is innocent unless their guilt is established beyond a reasonable doubt in court.

INCIDENTS

HOME/GARAGE BURGLARIES

• Between June 25 and July 6 someone stole a laptop from the 700 block of Lake Avenue.
• Between July 17 and July 20, someone stole a desktop computer from the 200 block of Broadway Avenue.
• On July 18, a resident in the 600 block of Laramie Avenue found a man who was standing outside his garage trying to steal an electric bike. The man, later identified as 57-year-old Russell Boykin of Chicago, ran away and was later found in a yard in the 3400 block of Wilmette Avenue and later charged with burglary. Read More...
• Someone tried to break into a home in the 100 block of Woodbine Avenue between 9 and 11 p.m. on July 28. A window had been opened but it appeared nothing was missing and no one had entered.
• During the same time period, someone got into another in the 100 block of Woodbine Avenue by removing a window air conditioning unit to get inside before stealing electronics and keys.
• Someone stole a bicycle from an unlocked detached garage in the 200 block of Greenleaf Avenue between noon on Aug. 10 and 6 p.m. on Aug. 12.
• Someone broke into a home in the 800 block of Leamington Avenue between 1:30 and 4:40 p.m. on Aug. 29 by breaking down an exterior door. Jewelry and cash were stolen and bedrooms were rummaged through.
• Someone got into an unlocked garage in the 100 block of Broadway Avenue between 8 a.m. Aug. 27 and 12 p.m. Aug. 29 and stole a bicycle.
• Someone stole a bicycle from inside an unlocked garage in the 2200 block of Iroqouis Road between 4:30 p.m. on July 28 and 9:30 a.m. on July 29.

STOLEN CARS

• Someone stole a gray Chrysler around 2:45 p.m. on July 20 after it had been left unlocked and running in front of a gas station in the 800 block of Skokie Boulevard.
• Police recovered a stolen Chevy Yukon at Edens Plaza at 5:11 p.m. on July 20 after it was stolen from a gas station near the intersection of Lincoln Avenue and Diversey Parkway in Chicago and tracked to Wilmette.
• Someone stole an Infiniti from an unlocked detached garage between 6 p.m. on Aug. 9 and 5:30 p.m. on Aug. 10.

FACEBOOK FRAUD
A Hawthorn Lane resident reported on July 28 that someone hacked into their Facebook account. In an effort to recover the account, the resident wired $3,000 to the hacker before realizing it was a scam.

ONLINE DATING SCAM
A Greenleaf Avenue resident reported on Aug. 6 that they had paid over $42,000 via Western Union to two different people who they had met on an online dating site. Both scammers had requested money for various reasons, such as shipping gold from Nigeria and Dubai to the U.S.

POWER WASHING SCAM
In what police said was a common ruse, a resident in the 300 block of Park Avenue reported between 1 and 4 p.m. on Aug. 6 that four men had offered a "special price of $60 per gallon of solution." The men then claimed they used 24 gallons of solution and got the resident to write them a check for $1,440 before the resident determined it to be a scam and cancelled the check.

FINANCIAL EXPLOITATION
A Sheridan Road resident reported on Aug. 16 that they discovered $600,000 was missing from their bank and retirement accounts, and it appeared the missing money had been transferred to India.

ARRESTS/CITATIONS

Lori Anderson, 59, of the 1000 block of Elm Creek Drive in Elmhurst, was arrested and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol following a traffic stop for a minor violation at 11:36 p.m. on July 20 in the 1100 block of Wilmette Avenue.

Simon Rog, 25, in the 7600 block of West Altgeld Street in Elmwood Park, was arrested on July 26 on a Cook County probation violation warrant after police stopped him while walking in the 1700 block of Lake Avenue.

Rafal Rosinski, 40, of the 1400 block of Fairlane Drive in Schaumburg, was arrested at charged with driving under the influence of alcohol after police were called to the area of Gillson Dog Beach for a report of a vehicle off the road at 7:34 p.m. on Aug. 7. The driver of the vehicle, stuck on the concrete wall and seating area near the beach, reportedly smelled of alcohol and showed signs of impairment.

Susanna McNerney, 38, of the 800 block of Humboldt Avenue in Winnetka, was arrested and charged with DUI after police were called to a traffic crash at 8:23 p.m. on Aug. 7 near the intersection of Lake and Wilmette avenues where the drive of a vehicle smelled of alcohol, demonstrated signs of impairment and failed field sobriety tests.

William Weir, 23, no current address, was arrested around 10 a.m. on Aug. 8 in the 100 block of Park Avenue and charged with possession of a controlled substance, criminal trespassing to property and possession of cannabis.

Destiny D. Griffin, 19, of the 7700 block of South Yates Boulevard in Chicago, was arrested and charged with theft by deception after police were called to the Bed Bath & Beyond in the 3200 block of Lake Avenue around 6:30 p.m. on Aug. 16 for a report that she was trying to buy a small item with a fake $100 bill. After she was taken into custody police learned she had an outstanding arrest warrant connected with a charge of forgery from Wheaton.

Susan Allison, 52, of the 400 block of Sunset Drive in Wilmette, was arrested on Aug. 28 at her home and charged with filing a false police report after she claimed she had gotten a parking ticket from the City of Chicago in June and said someone had used her identity to finance a car in November 2017. Police later determined she was the co-leasee on the vehicle.

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