Gurnee cops arrest 4 in string of suburb-wide home burglaries

Gurnee police say they captured three men and a woman suspected in home burglaries in the village and possibly several other suburbs.

Authorities said the foursome was arrested in the Park City home where they live at 3414 Dixie Ave., just east of Gurnee, about 3 p.m. Friday after committing a residential burglary a short time earlier in unincorporated Lake County.

Gurnee police announced Wednesday the arrests came as they worked with eight other law-enforcement agencies in a residential burglary probe.

So far, Gurnee police Cmdr. Jay Patrick said, the suspects have been directly linked to two of seven summer burglaries in his village. The suspects also are accused in the Friday job northeast of Gurnee.

Patrick said police in Arlington Heights, Grayslake and McHenry County are among the agencies trying to sort out other burglaries that might have been committed by the foursome.

"I think they just looked for places that looked unoccupied during the day," Patrick said.

Michael Zentz, 25, was charged with six counts of residential burglary and is held in lieu of $250,000 bond in the Lake County jail in Waukegan.

Tiffany Driggers, 18, was charged with two counts of residential burglary and one count of possession of stolen property. She was held on a $10,000 bond in the county jail.

Ricardo Gorgas, 22, was charged with four counts of residential burglary was held on a $25,000 bond.

Alexis Gorgas, 26, was charged with three counts of residential burglary. He was in the county jail in lieu of a $25,000 bond.

Police said the suspects were arrested without incident. Jewelry, computers and electronics were among the items recovered from the suspects' home, police said.

Gurnee authorities said they had been probing several residential burglaries and developed potential suspect information before Friday. They worked with police departments in Arlington Heights, Grayslake, McHenry and Libertyville, in addition to Illinois State Police, Lake County Metropolitan Enforcement Group, and the Lake and McHenry county sheriff's offices.

Patrick said Gurnee detectives called police in other suburbs where home burglaries had occurred. He said the departments that banded together were investigating burglaries with similar characteristics.

All four suspects typically worked together in the daytime scouting for empty homes to break into, Patrick said. Two suspects would hit a house, he said, then flee to a getaway car parked on another street.

Patrick said Gurnee detectives developed information that led authorities to the suspects. He declined to reveal specifics.

"There was surveillance being run on them," Patrick said. "Not constantly, but on and off."

Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran and Gurnee Police Chief Robert Jones complimented the investigators from the eight agencies who worked the case.