WEST ROGERS PARK — At least two brazen home invasions on the North Side were connected and "not random," a police official said.
In both of the incidents — which occurred at 1:05 p.m. June 16 in the 6300 block of North Lowell Avenue and 4:07 a.m. June 19 in the 6600 block of North California Avenue — several men broke into, then searched, the homes. In the Lowell Avenue incident, the men were armed with a handgun.
"What I can tell you is both of these, that we think are connected, are location specific; this was not random. There’s a reason we think they picked the homes," Rogers Park Police Cmdr. Thomas Waldera said at a community meeting Wednesday evening. "There’s some kind of connection with the people who entered the home and the people who were in the home."
Waldera assured residents that the home invaders were not " driving around and picking a house at random" to break into.
Earlier, police said the home invasions were perpetrated by three or four black men between 5-foot-7 and 6-foot-3, weighing between 180 and 240 pounds.
The intruders said they were police officers and were looking for someone. In one incident, they wore ski masks; in the other, they wore hooded sweatshirts and hats.
A 28-year-old woman was in the home at the time of the June 19 incident in West Rogers Park. The men briefly rummaged through her belongings before fleeing the home, police said. No injuries were reported, and nothing was taken.
Earlier, police linked another home invasion in the 5800 block of North Jersey Avenue at 9:50 p.m. June 7 to the Lowell Avenue incident.
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here:
