Crime & Safety
Ruse Burglars Take $180,000 in Cash, Jewelry From Brookside Glen Home
Tinley Park police say ruse burglars are likely to blame for the recent ransacking of a local home, where stashes of cash and gold turned up missing last week.
A family living in the 19400 block of Brookside Glen Drive in called police last week after realizing that their safes, dressers and filing cabinets had been gutted of valuables.
The family, which owns a business in Calumet City, kept some of the money earned through the company in various "hiding spots" in their home, police said. When one of the homeowners noticed on May 8 that a brown paper bag containing $1,000 cash was missing from a dresser drawer, he began to check on his other valuables, according to the police report.
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He then discovered that more than $8,000 cash was missing from a black filing cabinet and $125,000 worth of gold jewelry disappeared from a safe, the report said. Also in the safe were bank statements and paperwork, CDs and about $4,500 cash.
A box with about $1,100 and a one that had around $900 worth of jewelry in it were snagged from a dresser, the report said. Also missing was about $900 in singles and $2 bills that was stuffed in a purse on top of the safe, according to police. A family member's $55,000 jewelry collection was listed among stolen items, along with $2,000 in cash that was tucked away in the same location.
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A separate stash of foreign money that equaled about $550 in U.S. currency was also taken.
Police said there weren't any signs of forced entry to the home and noted that one of the home's residents—a grandmother—often leaves to take long walks or sleeps on the couch.
The report also indicated that a man, who Cmdr. Steve Vaccaro said was likely a ruse burglar, approached the grandma around the time of the theft and said he was from the gas company.
The woman then escorted the visitor to the backyard, providing an opportunity for other burglars to enter the home from another direction, Vaccaro said. while their accomplices enter a home and steal valuables.
The residents who own the Calumet City business said they have store employees who do work for them around their home and some know where the stolen items were, according to the report.
They said they believed the break-in occurred between 9:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. May 8.
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