CHICAGO — Skokie, Ill., police on Thursday were continuing to look for a burglar who broke into a home then continually apologized for the crime to a woman who happened to be home.
He promised to call her and tell her where he was pawning the jewelry he was stealing so she could get it back, police said.
The 43-year-old woman told police that when she walked into the bedroom of her home around 8 a.m. on Aug. 27 she was confronted by a man holding a 16-inch-long pry bar, police said.
The man reportedly told the victim he wasn’t going to hurt her.
“I don’t want do to this but I haven’t had a job for so long and I have three children to support,” he said, according to police.
The intruder asked the victim for jewelry and money.
Police gave the following account:
The victim took jewelry from a safe in the bedroom closet.
He took change from a glass jar on a dresser and used his shirt to wipe off fingerprints. He reportedly took an envelope containing about $485 and 100 Euros as well as $50 cash.
When the intruder asked what was in another bedroom, the victim told him it was her 16-year-old daughter’s bedroom.
“I won’t touch anything in here, since I have three children of my own and I wouldn’t want anyone to mess with them,” he said.
Police said the intruder tied the victim’s arms behind her back with a phone cord and asked her for a pen and paper so he could write down her cell phone number. He said he wanted to call her and tell her where he had pawned her mother’s jewelry.
He put the victim into the bathroom and told her to wait 10 minutes before calling police. When the woman freed herself, she discovered that two cameras and a laptop were also taken.
Police said there has not been an arrest and that the intruder did not call the victim as he had promised to do.
