An 18-year-old Auburn Gresham man was charged with burglary after he allegedly entered an unlocked home near 56th and Nagle at about 4 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 23 and stole a money clip, $49 cash and a set of keys.Deonta Copening, 18, of 78th and Winchester, was reportedly spotted entering and exiting the home by a neighbor--an off-duty law enforcement officer--who called 911 to report the incident.
The neighbor said that when he called to Copening and ordered him to stop, Copening ran away through nearby yards and injured his knee on a fence at 5310 S. Mulligan. He was apprehended by police in a yard at 5315 S. Narragansett and arrested.
The burglary victim, a 67-year-old man, told police he slept through the incident. Police said the items missing from the home were found when they patted down Copening, and were returned to the victim.
Additionally, police said that because Copening matched the description of a man wanted in an earlier case of groping a woman at Little Caesar’s Pizza, 5601 S. Harlem, they took him there, where he was positively identified by the victim, according to the police report.
Bond was set at $50,000 and Copening is due in Cook County Circuit Court on Tuesday, Aug. 30 at 51st and Wentworth, according to the Cook County Department of Corrections.
