Serial Home Burglar Tricked 13-Year-Old Girl, 91-Year-Old Woman, Prosecutors Say

SKOKIE, IL — Prosecutors said a prolific home burglar talked his way into a Wilmette home this summer by convincing the child who answered the door that he worked for the village.

The same man was also wanted on warrants alleging he forced his way into homes in Lincolnwood and Northfield, where he told an elderly Northfield woman that he was offering medical assistance after busting into her back door.

And, at the time of his arrest this week, the man had at least three outstanding arrest warrants issued after he failed to appear in court on other home burglary charges and escaped from electronic monitoring, authorities said.

Vinny Miller, 27, of Chicago's Portage Park neighborhood, has four felony convictions and three misdemeanors, according to prosecutors. Most recently, Miller served a three-year sentence after he was found guilty in 2018 of two counts of burglary, prosecutors said.

Detectives believed Miller was associated with a burglary crew that had carried out more than 70 residential burglaries in the area, Lincolnwood police said in the wake of his arrest in 2017.

Two of the three new residential burglary charges Miller faces stem from incidents on Dec. 14, 2020, according to Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Conor Woods.

In the first case, he said police were alerted by a burglar alarm to a break-in in the 7000 block of Karlov Avenue in Lincolnwood.

Miller was captured on video inside the home and the resident later reported a Rolex watch, gold jewelry and about $1,800 in cash were taken from inside, Woods said at a bond hearing Tuesday.

Around 4:30 p.m. that same day, Miller broke into an occupied home in the 2300 block of Winnetka Court, where he was confronted by a 91-year-old resident, Woods said.

"Victim confronted [Miller] in the living room," Woods said. "[He] pretended to be there to assist with a heart attack"

Woods said Miller wore the same Chicago White Sox jacket and drove the same Chevy Equinox in both instances. Investigators matched DNA on the jacket with Miller's and also identified him through video surveillance, the prosecutor said.

The most recent incident was a "ruse" home burglary that took place on the afternoon of June 5 in Wilmette.

In that incident, a resident of the 3500 block of Thornwood Avenue reported that their 13-year-old daughter had allowed Miller into their home after he claimed he was a village employee who needed to "check trees" in the yard, according to police and prosecutors.

About $20,000 in jewelry was stolen from the home by a second, unidentified man, according to Woods. The girl's mother arrived home while the two men were burglarizing the home, and both were reportedly able to identify Miller from an array of photographs.

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Miller's most recent arrest occurred in Schiller Park around 2 p.m. Monday, where officers took him into custody on a warrant for failure to appear in court in connection with his March 9, 2020 arrest in Skokie, police said.

In that incident, police said Miller was arrested inside of a home after officers got a call of a burglary in progress in the 5200 block of Brown Street. He was charged with resisting arrest and residential burglary.

Related: Jailed Man Charged Over Lincolnwood Ruse Burglary: Police

Judge Anthony Calabrese set the cash portion of Miller's bonds as $10,000 for the Lincolnwood charge, $15,000 for the Northfield charge and $15,000 for the Wilmette charge.

Miller must remain jailed on the other warrants until visiting the courtrooms of each of the judges who issued them. Calabrese had little tolerance when Miller began to question his bail.

"Mr. Miller,” he said. "Let me tell you this, you have so many cases that my patience is running short."