WICKER PARK — A man who had allegedly just looted a Wicker Park home — getting away with an iPhone and other stuff — was busted Wednesday at a McDonald's at Western and Milwaukee avenues with the proceeds on display.
But the stolen camera chargers he had on the table weren't the only things that gave him away. The victims of the burglary had helped police track him using the Find My iPhone app, and had also given police a picture of him captured during a FaceTime call from the stolen phone.
The man was arrested Wednesday at 3:30 p.m., said Officer Thomas Sweeney, a Chicago Police spokesman. He was yet to be formally charged as of Wednesday evening.
According to one of the victims, a man broke into their home in the 1900 block of West Schiller Street about 2:30 p.m. Wednesday.
He allegedly took clothing from the home and stashed it away in a neighbor's yard, and put two computers and other computer equipment in an alley recycle bin — and then left with a bike, a ring and an iPhone and chargers.
One roommate had been home during the burglary and heard a crash downstairs, but attributed the noise to typical alley clamor outside the Wicker Park coach house, one of the victims said.
Not long after, the resident noticed a toppled bookshelf, missing shoes and a missing iPhone.
Another resident arrived home and they called the phone, thinking it might have been misplaced somewhere in the home, the victims said. There was no answer, but it was clear the phone was not in the home.
About two minutes later, a call came to one of the residents via a FaceTime app — from the missing iPhone.
"You could see the blue skies," recalled one of the residents, who didn't want to be named. "The person on the other end fumbled around for a bit. You could tell the person didn't know what they were doing.
"Then I could see his face so I took a screen shot."
The two residents used the Find My iPhone application which led them to the McDonalds. They called 911.
"The police arrived and I sent them a text message with the screenshot," said the resident. "The police were ecstatic that they had something to work with.
"They went to the McDonald's and there he was sitting with the stuff on the table."
Police found the residents' items that had been strewn around in a neighbor's yard.
During another search that evening, residents recovered the two computers and other missing items from the recycling bins in the alley.
"If he wouldn't have messed up, we probably wouldn't have recovered the stolen items," the resident said.
"I guess we got lucky to have had [not] the smartest man break into our place."
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