Saturday, October 23, 2010

A Word Of Warning

A reader from the Clarendon Park area writes about an incident earlier tonight that involved an unauthorized person getting into her building.  It's also been mentioned at recent CAPS meetings:  Intruders are getting into buildings, stealing packages from the lobby or burglarizing the residences.  If you see or suspect anything suspicious, don't hesitate to call 911.

"I'm hoping you can remind all Uptown Update readers to be very cautious when buzzing people into buildings.  Tonight at 8pm, I heard a man buzz each apartment in my building at 848 W. Agatite.  Someone let this man in, and he proceeded to sneak through our building, quietly attempting to enter each apartment, including my own.  Thankfully, I believe everyone's doors were locked.  I called 911 and the police arrived about 8 minutes later and escorted this man out.  Please remind people to be very aware of who they let into their buildings; by being careless with buzzers, you could be putting your property, neighbors, and yourself at risk. 

This man was about 5'8", Hispanic, overgrown hair, and was clearly intoxicated."

6 comments:

  1. This incident, yet again, makes me extremely frustrated that my landlord does not fix our buzzers or the lock on the 2nd door to our building -- anyone who makes it into our lobby has access to the whole building, and most people living here will buzz anybody in no questions asked (since they *can't* ask questions without going all the way outside). Just wonderful. Especially with people who don't live here constantly drinking on our front steps. Le sigh! It wasn't a common thing to lock the doors while you were home when I lived in Canada or Indiana but I've had a couple of experiences in Chicago that have taught me a few lessons...

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  2. Thankfully no one was injured and this guy was arrested.

    This is a perfect example why law abiding citizens should have the right to own a gun in their own home. What if this guy tried to force his way into a unit, or happened to attack a neighbor in the hallway? In such a situation, he would deserve whatever happened to him.

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  3. With the the law here we now have the right to own a firearm for protection and I have trained myself as well as my wife for the use of them too. Better safe then sorry I always say.

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  4. @ Candice

    Eggs work great....

    @ ChiCitizen and Wiseguy

    I second that. No tolerance or leniency for these criminals should be tolerated. The police unfortunately can't do much with someone coming through your door anyway. They'll be there for the aftermath sure, but we're on our own folks, its up to us to decide if we are going to be victims or heros....

    weapons are frightening and intimidating but a lot better than being unprepared for that moment you wish never came and that you are now unprepared for. Something to think about, especially in Uptown....

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  5. we get a couple of these jokers every year about this time. they ring doorbells until some lazy fool just lets them in. a couple years back this led to several break-ins in the building.

    please, please do not buzz anyone in you are not expecting. great your guests and delivery people. if you have a talk function on your buzzer use it. listen to hear if several buzzers are being buzzed at the same time.

    lucky for me, I can see the gate from my window, sadly, i can't always see the people ringing in detail. a couple of guys were trying to pull this just yesterday. i am very thankful that my neighbors were vigilant.

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  6. This incident didn't happen in Uptown but in Lakeview - a few years ago our next door neighbor (identical buildings)broke into our apt while he was drunk.
    He climbed over the railing on our deck from the stairs (no easy feat) and popped the lock on our patio door.
    He then fell asleep on the couch.
    Our dog heard him snoring and woke us up as our bedroom was upstairs we never heard him come in.
    We called the police and they took him away.
    He was 20 something yuppie who lived in the same apt as ours in the building next door. I'm glad we don't have a gun as we might have used it - we were scared ****less when we saw him in our house.

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