Crime & Safety

Busted: Duo Charged in Connection to 40 Burglaries

The arrest of two men ends a 2-month crime spree in Chicago and its northern suburbs.

Police have taken into custody two men who admitted to committing about 40 commercial burglaries that took place in Skokie as well as in Niles, Glenview, Des Plaines, Northbrook, Prospect Heights, Mount Prospect, Buffalo Grove, Lincolnwood, Wheeling, Chicago and unincorporated Cook County. 

Seong Lee, 43, of 8504 N. Waukegan Rd. in Morton Grove, and Nelson Cotto, of 2721 N. Merrimac Ave. in Chicago, were each charged with nine counts of burglary during a crime spree that spanned nearly two months, according to police.

Police had a first encounter with the two men on Sept. 6, when a Mount Prospect officer observed Lee and Cotto go behind a strip mall at Algonquin and Busse roads. When police questioned them, Lee and Cotto said they went to the back of the shopping center to urinate.

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During that incident, the officer noticed pry bars, a mask and gloves in the men's vehicle and seized the items. No charges were made at that time. However, several area police departments expressed interest in the two as suspects in a rash of break-ins.

The other law enforcement agencies were investigating cases of burglaries at Asian food stores, and the car in the Mount Prospect incident matched the description of a vehicle that was seen leaving a burglary at an Asian restaurant.

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A multijurisdictional task force of investigators put the two men under surveillance, and last Saturday morning, they witnessed the pair throw a large  rock through the glass door of a food store at Potter and Ballard roads in Des Plaines. 

After Lee and Cotto were observed entering and removing about $180 from a cash register, the surveillance team moved in and took them into  custody--11 days after the encounter in Mount Prospect.

Prior to that, the surveillance team reported observing Lee and Cotto throwing a large rock through a large glass window at R&W Manufacturing at Oak  Park and Jarvis Avenues in Niles. But the suspects didn't gain entry to the facility.

Once the two suspects were in custody, several area police departments interviewed them and gained statements in which Lee and Cotto admitted to the about 40 burglaries.

Lee and Cotto had a bond hearing Monday at the Cook County courthouse in Skokie.

Stay tuned to Patch for more information, including the charges against the men. 

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