COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — The man who trashed a West Rogers Park convenience store when he cut a hole in the roof and tried to wheel away an ATM last year was found guilty of burglary on Monday.
Store owner Nisha Soni said she couldn't help but giggle when she watched surveillance footage of Justin Jordan, 25, struggling to steal the bulky machine from her family's store.
"Honestly, I was laughing," Soni, 32, said at the time. "You feel like that guy's dumb."
The camera at Quick Stop, 2751 W. Pratt Blvd., captured the December 2014 burglary, which included an hourslong effort by Jordan to cut a hole in the store's ceiling in an apparent effort to avoid security systems.
Police arrested Jordan in January when he was caught trying to break into an apartment building he'd allegedly tried to burglarize a month earlier. Jordan was charged in a series of North Side burglaries and held on $100,000 bail.
On Monday, Cook County Judge Thomas V. Gainer Jr. found Jordan guilty on four separate burglary counts. Jordan was sentenced to 42 months in prison, and credited with the 158 days he already served while awaiting trial.
The judge also ordered two years of mandatory supervised release.
According to court records, Jordan's burglary spree started on Dec. 5 — four days after he was put on probation for felony drug charges.
Jordan first broke into a North Park CVS at 3825 W. Devon Ave., prosecutors said. He allegedly tried to steal an ATM there but was unsuccessful.
Two days later, Jordan showed up at the Quick Stop.
Soni described the burglary as comical. She said Jordan first arrived outside the shop about 2:40 a.m. on Dec. 7, and tilted one of the outside cameras so it was facing downward. Then, around 6 a.m., Jordan could be seen jumping from the ceiling, where he apparently drilled a 2-foot-wide hole, Soni said.
"He spent three to four hours to cut the roof," she said.
In the next 30 minutes, Soni said, the masked man, who was later identified as Jordan, tried in vain to lift the ATM onto a red dolly just outside the front door he'd unlocked and opened. He then dragged the machine into the back door, she said, when an alarm finally triggered.
Jordan fled, leaving the ATM behind.
The spree didn't stop there, prosecutors said.
On Dec. 11, Jordan allegedly broke a window of an apartment building in the 2600 block of West Glenlake Avenue. A resident of the building, who asked not to be identified, said another resident called police, and Jordan fled empty-handed.
There was an apparent monthlong lull in Jordan's burglary attempts.
But he allegedly tried again.
About 4:30 a.m. on Jan. 5, he returned to the apartment building on Glenlake and broke into the basement laundry room, according to court documents. A resident called police, who found Jordan with two backpacks filled with burglary tools, police said.
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