Habitual Burglar Arrested After Heist While Family Slept: Police

Riverside, IL - A man wanted by police for burglaries in Elmhurst, Glen Ellyn and Morton Grove was arrested May 27 after he snuck into a Riverside home while a family slept.

James M. Ussery, 23 of the 3400 block of West Madison Street in Chicago, is charged with residential burglary, a Class 1 felony, and burglary, a Class 2 felony, according to Riverside police.

Police say Ussery cut the screen on a kitchen window around 1 a.m. May 10 and crawled into the home in the 100 block of N. Cowley Road.

The homeowner, his wife and five young children slept as the burglar nabbed laptops, cell phones, cash and wallets before fleeing through the back door, leaving a stolen bicycle behind.

"Mr. Ussery is a habitual felony offender who keeps committing burglary after burglary," said Riverside Police Chief Thomas Weitzel in a statement. "He gets arrested for felony burglary and/or theft, does some period of time in custody and upon his release from jail, he goes right back to committing more burglaries. In this case, he burglarized a home after 1 in the morning while the residents were sleeping. We know that Mr. Ussery was armed with a knife as he cut the screen when he entered the home, and it is fortunate that the homeowner did not wake up and any confrontation took place."

Riverside detectives investigated the burglary "non stop," since it caused great alarm in the community. They tracked the stolen cell phones to an ECO-ATM kiosk in Norridge, Illinois, where the phones had been traded for cash.

The kiosk lets users drop phones into a secure bin and pick up cash for the value of the phone, as determined by the company. To make the trade, users have to scan a state identification or a driver's license. From this kiosk, the phones were tracked to a processing center in San Diego, California, police reported. The phones were recovered, and they, along with fingerprint and DNA evidence from the burglary, led police to Ussery.

Police arrested Ussery on May 27 at a fitness center in Norridge, where he was playing basketball. He gave police several alias names, including James Allen and Maurice Allen, police reported.

Ussery, a former Oak Park resident, is currently on felony parole for a 2014 Oak Park residential burglary, though Riverside police have asked the state's attorney's office and the Illinois Department of Corrections to revoke his parole status.

Ussery's bail was set at $75,000.

He had 22 prior arrests including invasion of privacy, obstructing police, theft, traffic offenses, obstruction of justice and six prior convictions for burglary, and police from several other departments had been looking for him in connection to burglaries in their territories.

"I would also like to thank my detectives who worked this case continuously since the burglary happened."

Photo courtesy of Riverside police.