Norridge Homeowner Scares Off Would-Be Thieves

By Suzanne Le Mignot

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    NORRIDGE, Illinois (WBBM) — Caught in the act: a suburban Chicago homeowner stopped a thief in the middle of his crime.

And then something surprising happened. Indeed, as CBS 2’s Suzanne Le Mignot reported, the break-in didn’t go according to plan – because the Norridge homeowner was able to stop him in his tracks, just with the sound of her voice.

And it was all captured on the Ring camera video.

On the video, a white four-door car pulls up quickly in front of this Norridge home, a person wearing white, jumps out and appears to go to the house next door.

The passenger, clad in all black, heads right to a red vehicle, tries the door and sees it’s not opening.

Then, he goes to the car, parked next door. This time, the car door isn’t locked. He grabs a backpack and starts running. Listen to what happens next.

“Hey you f*****! Put that back!”

He quickly obeys the command and runs right back to the vehicle, dropping the backpack next to the rear tire. Then, he pauses for a few seconds, thinks about going back, but then he’s ordered.

“Get away from this f****** house!

The Ring camera video was shot around 6:30 Monday morning.

Norridge police said around the same time, there were at least three or four other incidents involving what’s known as car hopping thefts.

That’s when thieves randomly check car door handles to see if a vehicle is unlocked. In at least two of those cases, belongings were taken.

“It is concerning because of the fact that this happened during the day, so it’s a good thing this person was probably up at that particular time,” said Interim Chief Wayne Schober of the Norridge Police Department. “This happens over night hours, when nobody is there.”

On June 25, Norridge police did a robocall for residents, letting them know about the rise in car hopping thefts in the community.

“There is a little bit of a trend still going on with this. We have seen an uptick in this crime and we want our residents to know, to make sure they lock their doors before they leave their vehicles,” Schober said.

CBS 2 spoke to the homeowner who didn’t want to go on camera. But she said it seems sometimes talking to criminals in a calm way doesn’t work but profanity can get the message across.

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