Burglars Targeting Cars Of Parents Dropping Off Kids At Wicker Park School
CHICAGO (CBS) --Parents in Wicker Park are on the alert and so are area police. Those parents are being targeted by thieves when they're picking up or dropping their kids off at school.
CBS 2's Mike Parker has the story in an Original Report.
Kelly Greeby is watching surveillance video of a man breaking the window of her car in a classic "smash and grab" theft.
The video shows her car parked in the 2100 block of West Evergreen as she walked her two children a block and a half to Pritzker School. She sees the man approach her car, check to see what might be inside, and check to see if the doors are locked. A moment later, he returns with a missile he uses to shatter the passenger side window. He pulls out Kelly's back pack, goes through it, then decides he doesn't want it and tosses it back inside.
Greeby says it unnerving to think "that I was with my kids. Was he watching me from the alley, getting out of the car with my kids?"
There's been a rash of these crimes in recent weeks near Pritzker School, almost all of them involving breaking in to the parked, unattended cars of parents during pick up or drop off time.
Parent Lisa Curran says, "Our nanny was going to pick up our son and she left a visible bag in the front of the car, and by the time she got back, the window was smashed and everything was gone."
"It is so much nerve," Kelly Greeby says. "I would never have the nerve. It's nine o'clock in the morning."
1st Ward Alderman Proco Joe Moreno says the crimes are a "big concern." He points out that he and his family live just two blocks from the school. He says he's working closely with local police to put an end to this.
