Police are looking for a man who bought a crowbar in a Romeoville hardware store in connection with a string of Fox Valley Dunkin’ Donuts shop burglaries.
Authorities from Aurora, Oswego, North Aurora, St. Charles, Yorkville, Batavia and Romeoville are all searching for the masked man who has been breaking into doughnut shops using a specific crowbar.
Following a recent burglary of a Romeoville Dunkin’ Donuts, Romeoville Police Det. Mike Ryan began to pay special attention to the crowbar being used, and he said that focus has paid dividends.
Ryan said he searched for stores that carried that particular crowbar and narrowed it down to a Menards in Romeoville. Once at the store, Ryan found surveillance footage that showed a man purchasing the same type of crowbar.
“The robbery (of the Romeoville Dunkin’ Donuts) happened at 1 a.m. and by the end of the afternoon we were able to gather the surveillance video. It looks like the same person in (all of the burglaries),” Ryan said.
He said it wasn’t until he heard about the Fox Valley doughnut shop burglaries on the news that Ryan thought there could be a connection.
“We were looking here, we weren’t looking up north,” he said
Ryan believes the burglaries are carried out by a group, with one person entering the Dunkin’ Donuts shops and the others in a gray getaway vehicle.
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In video from the burglarized Dunkin’ Donuts shops, the suspect is masked and there is no way to identify him.
The crimes in the Fox Valley all happened this month and included burglaries of Dunkin’ Donuts in Aurora, Oswego, Yorkville, Batavia and St. Charles.
The burglar got away with cash from the Oswego and St. Charles burglaries and one of the Aurora burglaries.
Anyone with information about any of the cases is asked to call their local police department