South Chicago Heights Police Nab Appliance Thief: UPDATE

SOUTH CHICAGO HEIGHTS, IL — South Chicago Heights police have arrested a University Park man who was breaking into houses for sale to steal high-end appliances and sell them online.

Myron Spight, 29, was arrested July 20, South Chicago Heights police said.

Spight had been using social media and real estate listings to find houses to target. He would drive to the house, check the surroundings and if it suited his needs, he would remove the "for sale" sign from the yard, Police Chief William Joyce, Jr. said.

"He was a pretty sharp criminal," Joyce said.

Spight and an accomplice would come back before dawn in a Mercury Mountaineer with an attached trailer, pull as close to the house as possible, disconnect the appliances and haul them away.

"He was not yanking them out. He was carefully disconnecting them. He was unbolting them. He was going to get these appliances out," Joyce said.

Spight would later sell them using popular online sales sites and social media. In at least one case, Joyce said, he used a listing's photo of the appliances in his own ad to sell the stolen items. The owner spotted it online and reported it to police.

South Chicago Heights began looking into the crimes few months ago when a resident first reported that someone broke into their house and stole the appliances, Joyce said. Within days, similar incidents happened in Steger and Homewood, and Joyce's team began to look for pattern. Soon, nearby jurisdictions began to work together to crack the case.

Working with the FBI and the Secret Service, police began to monitor websites where the items were being sold. They were able to get a search warrant that lead to a cell phone number for the seller. Area video from surveillance and red light cameras captured the make and model of the vehicle and some of the numbers on a license plate. Police were able to use photo composites of the vehicle to hand out to residents, and they asked them to be on the lookout.

On July 20, a resident who spotted Spight's car traveling east on Sauk Trail called the tip in to South Chicago Heights police. Officer Mitch Hamilton, who took the call, alerted Officer John Darge, who was driving nearby. Officers were able to stop Spight and arrest him on Sauk Trail east of State Street near Miller Road.

Joyce said Spight and his passenger had just come from a burglary in Park Forest and had appliances in the trailer with them. Spight was not carrying a valid driver's license, so police brought him back for questioning.

From there, Joyce said, the pieces fell into place.

Spight committed a "significant number" of burglaries, but no dollar amount was available.

"This was brand-new, high-end stuff," Joyce said.

However, police were able to recover about 90 percent of the stolen items.

Detectives from Steger, Crete, Homewood, Park Forest, Richton Park and Glenwood assisted with the efforts, as did the Chicago Police Department, the FBI and the Secret Service.

"This was a complicated case," Joyce said. "These guys really did an exceptional job."