By Mary Corrado
Editor
Police captured a suspect immediately after the latest in a long string of coin-op laundry machine burglaries on Friday, April 15.
A woman observed the man entering a locked laundry room in the 4100 block of N. Clark St. at 1:05 p.m. She called 911 and described the offender as a male Hispanic, in his 30's, wearing a black leather jacket and walking with a pronounced limp. The flash message sent out by Officer Moyer was picked up by Officers Montecinos and Dombrowski, who had been assigned to investigate the pattern of coin-op laundry burglaries in the 19th, 23rd and 20th districts.
The officers immediately toured the area, located a suspect matching the description, and attempted to stop him. When he fled, the officers pursued him on foot. Montecinos fell after bumping into the suspect, and Dombrowski caught the suspect. When they tackled him to the ground, 444 quarters poured from his pockets. In addition, a large screwdriver and a knife with a bent tip spilled from the pockets onto the street.
The officers read him the Miranda rights, then persuaded the suspect to lead them to the scenes of his other burglaries. The suspect said he could not lead them to all of them, because he had done about 500 coin-op machine burglaries and couldn't possibly remember where each one happened.
At this point, David Talamantes has been charged with this burglary as well as those at 2612 W. Leland Ave. and 4210 N. Clark St., and 14 burglaries have been cleared. The Police Dept. expects to clear over 100 burglaries with this arrest.
Police Officer Turney also assisted with this arrest. |
