Police Use Apple's Locating Service to Make Felony Burglary Arrest

The following is a release from the Hinsdale Police Department:

On Wednesday, Feb. 15, at approximately 1 p.m., Hinsdale Police met with a male victim at a commercial office building at 15 Spinning Wheel Rd. in Hinsdale who reported that his 17-inch Apple Macbook Pro, valued at $4,500, was stolen while he was at lunch.

The victim is an employee of the private company whose business is located in 15 Spinning Wheel, and he last saw his Macbook Pro in the conference room of the business while he was working on it at approximately 11:40 a.m. Upon returning from his lunch break, the Macbook Pro was missing. The office was left unoccupied for a time period of approximately 30 minutes, during which time the offender allegedly made entry to the office and left with the Macbook Pro. There was no forced entry to the office suite, nor were there any other items reported missing.

Investigators worked immediately with the victim to activate built-in electronic locating services of the Apple Macbook Pro. The locating services are ones which are common today on many Apple devices, including iPhones, iPads, as well as desktop and laptop computers. The locating services provide the owner the ability to see the physical location of the device after it may have gone missing or been stolen. 

Using this technology, officers learned that the device was being actively used at or near the 10 block of Normandy Drive in Addison, and continued their investigation at this location. At approximately 5 p.m., officers from Hinsdale and Addison took the suspect into custody as he tried to flee out the rear door of a residence barefoot while holding the stolen Macbook Pro in hand.

Richard Leon, 59, of 102 S. Villa Ave. in Addison, was charged with one felony count of burglary and one felony count of theft, and was taken to the DuPage County Jail. The defendant had no authorized purpose for being within the commercial building from which the Macbook Pro was stolen.

This is the second case in the past six months in which Hinsdale Police have used this technology to apprehend suspects. On Oct. 14, 2011, Hinsdale Police were dispatched to investigate a stolen vehicle report which occurred at a fuel station at 210 E. Ogden Ave. in Hinsdale. Upon arriving, the victim informed the officers that his Apple iPhone was inside the vehicle and also missing. Police then used locating services to locate the vehicle and the suspect who stole it parked nearby in Hinsdale.

One of the Hinsdale investigators assigned to this case has completed extensive training with computer forensics, and is currently a member of a specialized investigative unit in DuPage County. The investigator, Joseph Rauen, states that the general public should be aware that locating services are pre-installed on many Apple products, but it is important that owners of these devices become familiar with and activate the services before they become victims. For Windows PC users, there are now after-market software applications that can allow you to do the same.

For questions related to this release, please contact Deputy Chief Mark Wodka, (630) 789-7086.