BUCKTOWN — A woman Tuesday morning was surprised to find a stranger in her home whom she initially thought was in the process of stealing her laptop when he was discovered.
The resident described how she was in her home in the 1900 block of North Bloomingdale Avenue at around 10:15 a.m. looking around for her laptop "and thought it was strange I couldn't find it."
"I had looked everywhere but the basement and noticed everything else was pretty intact, so thought it could be my absentmindedness," she posted on a Facebook page for Bucktown residents.
She heard someone downstairs and yelled out a few times. The intruder "yelled back 'hello' and left through our side door," she said.
"I caught a glimpse of him as he left and then I ran to a bedroom to get a look at him outside and he was calmly walking down our alley," she said.
Though the woman said her laptop was gone and filed a police report, a few hours after the home invasion she said her housekeeper found the laptop inside of a Target bag in the living room.
"I think he grabbed the laptop and a bag, then put it down to head to the basement for other valuables," she said, adding, "As I was yelling out, he turned around and left the house, so left empty handed."
She said she assumed the thief entered through an unlocked door.
A Chicago Police Department spokesman confirmed that the woman filed a report on the theft and said that authorities are investigating. The woman said that she plans to update the police report to reflect that nothing was stolen.
The victim described the intruder as an African-American man, between five-foot ten and six-foot one inch tall, with a slender build. He was wearing a light-colored t-shirt and a baseball cap, she said.
The woman, who authored the post to warn neighbors, said her home is not equipped with cameras but has "already scheduled to have a guy come tomorrow to take care of all of that."
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