3 Cars Broken Into Within 8 Minutes Outside of Daycare: Downers Grove Police

Three cars were broken into and burglarized last week outside of a local Downers Grove daycare, police have reported. The instances follow in the footsteps of a recent trend in which criminals wait for parents to walk their kids into daycares before smashing their unattended car windows and stealing whatever they can.

Within eight minutes just before 9 a.m. Jan. 17, according to police reports, a Hyundai Santa Fe, a Toyota Rav4 and a black Volvo were all broken into outside of Bright Horizons at the Esplanade at 3400 Lacey Road in Downers Grove. The thefts left a $900 dent in property damage fees and $1,260 worth of items missing from the parents’ cars.

One mother, the owner of the Hyundai, said she arrived at the daycare around 8:20 a.m., took her kids out of the car and locked her vehicle before walking her children into the daycare. When she came back around 8:35 a.m., she told police, her passenger side front window was smashed in and her purse, as well as its valuable contents, were missing. She said she also noticed two other cars with smashed-in windows parked near hers.

Police said they believe the offender was someone in a large silver pickup truck, which the mom had said she’d noticed and that it had seemed “out of place to her.” It had been parked behind her and sported large-scale tires and tinted windows so she couldn’t identify who was inside. She didn’t catch the plate number.

The owner of the Rav4 told police she’d been inside at the time of the incident and had arrived around the same time as the owner of the Hyundai. She told police that her black tote bag had been stolen with around $100 in cash inside. The third victim drove the Volvo SUV and said she’d also been inside at the time of the theft. Her purse was also missing.

Anyone with information related to these cases can contact the Downers Grove Police Department at 630-434-5600.

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