CHICAGO — A man charged in a recent burglary spree asked officers about to arrest him if they would fetch his cane after he was caught hiding beneath a desk during a botched burglary of the North Side Community Resources building, the agency's executive director said.
“He couldn’t get up,” Chris Zala, who runs the Rogers Park social services agency, said of Marcus Jones, the 57-year-old charged in the case. “His cane was actually in the vestibule of an apartment building next door, which was odd. Police recovered it from there because he was asking for it.”
Zala nearly had walked into the man later identified as Jones as he responded May 7 to a 1:30 a.m. burglary alarm at 1530 W. Morse Ave.
“It was really late at night, so I was exhausted,” Zala recalled Tuesday. “I was surprised, taken aback, caught off guard, I think. No doubt I was concerned something could escalate, so I quietly tip-toed outside and called police. I didn’t know if he was carrying weapons or anything.”
Jones — whose back had been turned when Zala noticed him — had allegedly loaded a cart belonging to North Side Community Resources with three iPad minis, an external hard drive and two laptops, Zala said. Police said Jones was carrying a Stanley crow bar for prying open doors.
When police squad cars stopped in front of the offices with lights flashing, Jones hid under a desk, where officers found him, police said. The electronics stashed in the cart were worth around $1,600, Cook County prosecutors said during Jones’ bond hearing on May 8.
Prosecutors alleged also that Jones, who had been paroled for a conviction on another burglary, was responsible for a spree of break-ins in Lincoln Park, Lakeview and Rogers Park dating back to April. Assistant State’s Attorney Erin Antonietti said Jones had been captured on surveillance footage during a burglary on the 400 block of West Wrightwood Avenue.
His bail was set at $100,000, according to court documents.
Zala couldn’t say why his offices were targeted.
“Being a not-for-profit community agency, we get tons of people who walk in and out on a daily basis, so I don’t know if this individual has ever been a client,” Zala said. “He could have come in and saw some equipment laying around and came back at a later time. But none of the staff recognized him.”
Some of the equipment Jones allegedly tried to take had been donated for a senior citizen “tech connect” program. The rest of it belonged to the agency and was used to conduct business, according to Zala.
“It’s kind of sad to see he was burglarizing a not-for-profit,” Zala said.
North Side Community Resources was known as the Rogers Park Community Council until 2012, when its service area expanded to include Edgewater, West Ridge, Uptown, Albany Park and beyond. It provides social programming and housing, multicultural resources and senior services.
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