Gun Found, Woman Charged In Lincolnwood Mall Burglary, Fraud Probe

SKOKIE, IL — A Chicago woman suspected of involvement in numerous car burglaries is accused of using stolen credit cards in Lincolnwood.

Lynette Serrano, 35, of the Humboldt Park neighborhood, is also charged with unlawful use of a weapon after she was found with a loaded gun stashed under her seat at the time of her arrest Wednesday in Downers Grove, according to police and prosecutors.

The investigation began on Boxing Day last year, when a patron of the Olive Garden at Lincolnwood Town Center, 3333 W. Touhy Ave., heard his car alarm go off and spotted a white Nissan SUV fleeing the scene around 5 p.m., authorities said.

Officers reportedly found a backpack next to the burglarized car, which turned out to have been stolen about an hour earlier from Old Orchard Mall.

The backpack's owner identified it as his at the Lincolnwood Police Department, and told police he had gotten a fraud notification about an attempt to use his stolen credit card at the GameStop at Lincolnwood Town Center, according to Assistant State's Attorney Nic Attia.

Although the attempt was denied, Serrano was seen on video using another card to purchase a Playstation 5 game console and multiple gift cards, Attia said at Serrano's initial court appearance Thursday.

Lincolnwood police sent out images from the mall in a police bulletin, and a detective with the River Forest Police Department recognized Serrano from a similar case that she was investigating.

On Wednesday, Lincolnwood detectives pulled over a orange Subaru, which was reported to have been seen around other recent car burglaries.

"[Serrano] was the sole occupant of that vehicle and it was registered to one of [her] family members," Attia said. "The same officers who investigated the December incident recognized her and placed her under arrest."

The officers found a fully loaded Glock 43X under the driver's seat, and Serrano admitted that it was hers. She has a Firearm Owners Identification card, but no concealed carry charge.

Although carrying an immediately accessible loaded gun in a vehicle meets the definition of the felony offense of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, the Cook County State's Attorney's Office only charged Serrano with misdemeanor unlawful use of a weapon.

---

Serrano's defense attorney, Ziad Alnaqib, said she was a mother of three school-aged children and not a flight risk.

"I do think that there isn't anything here that would indicate she's a threat of harm to anybody or herself. The fact that there was a gun in the vehicle is troubling, but it was a gun that she acknowledged ownership with," Alnaqib said.

Associate Judge Anthony Calabrese acknowledged there were "circumstances to indicate an unusual number of connections of the defendant to vehicles that have been burglarized."

Even though Serrano has no criminal record, the evidence against her described by prosecutors is "pretty strong," Calabrese said, ordering Serrano to post $1,000 cash to secure her pretrial release.

"I'm also troubled by the fact that, at the time of her arrest, during an investigation into other ongoing burglaries connected to a vehicle that is registered to family members, and to find that loaded pistol in that vehicle," the judge said, "is of grave concern to the court."

Serrano, who is due back in court to be indicted on June 8, was also ordered to turn over her FOID card and any guns in her possession. Prosecutors agreed to notify her defense attorney if they file any additional criminal charges against her in the mean time.