Crime & Safety

Second Hinsdale Ruse-Entry Victim Comes Forward

The man recognized the police department's composite sketch from several weeks ago as someone who came to his door on Oct. 6, but didn't find anything missing until recently.

It took more than a month for a Hinsdale man who lives in the 100 block of Chanticleer Avenue to realize he had been victimized by the ruse-entry burglars who, on the same day, , according to the Hinsdale Police Department.

The male victim read in a local paper about the first-reported burglary that took place Oct. 6, Deputy Chief Mark Wodka said, and recognized the composite sketch of one of the unknown suspects as a man that came to his door that day. It wasn’t until several weeks later, however, that he discovered $3,000 in cash and three gift cards missing from his home, Wodka said. He alerted police on Nov. 10. 

The alleged burglars in both cases posed as public services workers working on a water problem. They came to the male victim's house around noon and the female victim's house around 1 p.m.

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The deputy chief said the new development doesn’t change the department’s investigation much, considering the second burglary occurred on the same day in the same block.

“It does corroborate the physical description [of the suspect] that we have,” Wodka said.

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The is working in collaboration with Illinois State Police on the case. Wodka said the state police have over 700 descriptions of suspects in past deceptive crimes like ruse-entry burglaries, and those are being cross-checked with the description of Hinsdale’s suspect.

“There hasn’t been any progress there with taking that sketch,” Wodka said.

The suspect who was sketched, based on a description from the first victim, is a male Hispanic approximately 25 years of age, small build, wearing tan work pants and a white t-shirt. He was described as being approximately 5-foot-4 and 130 lbs. 


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