Just giving everyone in the area a heads up. I live on Damen at Iowa. Today, around 4:00 to 4:45 PM, a man tried to break into our apartment while my girlfriend was home alone. Initially he started out by repeatedly ringing the buzzer and pounding on the front window. Then, when my girlfriend thought he had given up and left, she walked towards the rear of the apartment to find the man halfway through the gangway-facing kitchen window(the window was closed but unlocked and it is about ten feet off the ground). Upon seeing him, she screamed and that scared him away. He ran through the gangway towards Damen Ave. We believe he was driving a large, junky, medium blue pickup truck with wooden planks running horizontally on the back. It looked kinda like a truck the scrappers who pick up metal and appliances drive. This truck was parked in front of our building as he was ringing the doorbell and was no longer there after he ran away. The man was a tall, skinny black dude in his late 30's. He was wearing a White Sox hat, a tan work shirt, and dark work pants. Figure I'd let people in the area know to be alert, I know an apartment a few buildings down was broken into a few months ago. On the plus side, it was an opportunity to meet a few of our neighbors who are really helpful and very nice.
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I assume you called the cops?
of course! they were no help. didn't take a report, didn't take her name, couldn't even get the facts right-everything she told them the cop repeated back wrong. she didn't even get a chance to tell him about seeing the truck. he DID tell her it was basically her fault for leaving a window unlocked (!) and then asked why she hadn't answered the door in the first place when he was pounding on the window. she told him she was a girl, at home ALONE and didn't feel safe answering the door for a stranger. last thing he said was "well, if we find him, we'll be back, but that probably won't happen, so....." and she still was too upset and shaking too much to argue. i filed a complaint already with the city services/311 and had her send an email to the alderman.
Too bad, that actually doesn't sound right. Hopefully you know the officer's name? I would get in touch with Sergeant Juan Clas
312.743.1271, he is the CAPS liaison for the 13th district and he takes this stuff seriously. You should also attend the CAPS meetings, you get to know what's going on in the hood and meet officers.
Interesting to note that your story was sent to me this morning by the Uke Village Neighborhood Association with the following bit on their website:
"You may recall there were some break-ins in that area about a month ago, and we’ve heard of a number of garages and residences being broken into this summer along Walton, Augusta, Iowa, Leavitt and Rice. Last week District 13 police issued a crime alert [for the area for armed robberies.]"
Sure hope the cop that came to your aid got that memo. I would definitely pop over to the CAPs meeting tonight, if you can, to let them know not everyone on the force is taking this so seriously. Like, serious enough to get the suspect's physical and vehicle description.
Beat Meeting 1323
Details: 1323 meets on the 3rd Wednesday of every month
Contact Details: 13th District Community Policing Office 312-746-8355
Location: Northwest Settlement House 1012 N. Noble St., 2nd Fl
Good luck! I'm glad she's ok!
We live just down the block at Iowa/Hoyne. Our garage (and our neighbors) was broken into last Wednesday 8/10. They didn't take anything of value but the car windows and stole change from the cars.
Apparently there is a group going around the neighborhood right now doing some B&E work on garages and houses. They strike at the same time (between 2-4 am), wear gloves, are quiet and usually don't take too many chances. Although the cops told us they seem to be getting more aggressive. The only reason they stopped last week was because the neighbor who lives behind us came home from work (night shift) and heard them trying to get into his place while he was parking his car. Lock up folks.
I'd also like to say the cops were great. They came over, waited with us for a couple of hours until the "CSI" folks could come take prints, etc. They gave us a ton of suggestions on what we can do to make our place safer. They pointed out a few things that we had done wrong, yes, but they weren't really blaming us. They just told us what this type of trash looks for.
Happy to hear they were responsive, Adam! And thanks for that info. Any chance they made any recommendations about motion/security lights? And do you know, as a renter, does a landlord need to provide security lights, because we got squat!
I guess, being a lady, it kind of freaks me out even more that this girl was home alone and there was a man coming through her window who she had a full description of, and the cop blew her off. God forbid, what if the dude wasn't scared off so easily.
They told us to get more lights. We have motion ones on the condo building and the detached garage out back. But the ivy from our garage had overgrown the sensor so the ones on the garage weren't working that well. They also suggested we get better external doors. The doors we use to enter the garage aren't very strong, nor is their frame. He told us to leave our car doors unlocked (if the car is parked in a locked garage). One of my neighbors had his unlocked so they didn't have to bust out his windows. Mine was locked so I had to get my driver's side door fixed.
The other interesting thing one of them told us to add was bells/chimes to the doors. He suggested we hang them on the inside. That way if someone is trying to break in they'll hear noises while they mess around with the doorknob. Oftentimes it can be enough to scare them away or make them not want to risk it.
Ohh, thanks! Good stuff.
Thanks for all the info, E Frank and Adam. I'm also at Iowa/Hoyne. All the break-ins we've had in the area this summer have me very nervous.
We're a little south of you, but I'll post to my neighborhood's FB page for people to keep an eye out for this guy. Thanks for posting.
Hello Everyone,
Thanks for this notice and extra info. There was a neighbor robbed just north of Damen and Iowa yesterday (tuesday aug 16). I live at that corner too, and my roommate heard the story from our neighbor. It inspired us to start a Facebook group, please consider joining. I'm taking this post and including it there, hopefully we can all start to piece together how to stop these robberies. - Steve Niketopoulos (stevedamien@gmail.com)
http://www.facebook.com/groups/202358516490876/#!/groups/202358516490876/
Hey Steve, if you could also encourage folks to post info here on EB too for the people who aren't on Facebook, that would be great.
Burglaries, Steve! (I live with Steve). Join the Facebook group! Looking forward to getting to know my neighbors and keeping our neighborhood safe!
Will do Becca, thanks.
Even tho your car is in the garage if you have a alarm on the car turn it on and leave the windows down and car unlocked.When they open the car door it will set the alarm off and hopefuly alert you and scare them off.
If you own and have a garage a simple baby alert intercom can alert you to a break in.The frame of the door is the weakest part of the door>To semi-quell worries about kick in,pry-in force have a door with a steel frame and steel door installed.You can always wait till they kick in the door you have now then have it replaced with a steel frame door after the fact.
Perhaps your girlfriend should have called the Police while he was pounding on the front? No? Then why do we have Police? So your girlfriend can scream?
hmmm, not sure people should call the police every time someone bangs on their front door or window during the middle of the day. this is a pretty common mode of communication for UPS and FedEx drivers, as well as mailmen.
point is, the cop was an a-hole and didn't do his job that day.
UPS, FED EX and Mailmen all wear uniforms and they don't drive beat up pickups with junk in the back. That's what thieves do
I did'nt see the comments about the cop and I'm glad they were called
Put a motion detector light in your garage.You'll have a light when you pull in and out and if some one unwanted comes in it will set off the light and perhaps scare them off.Is there any way to get spell check on EB? I'm going blind looking up words in the dictionary.