Police looking for Lake Co. purse-snatcher
Police are searching for a ski-masked bandit who has stolen purses from three women at busy Lake County shopping centers within the past week.
Police say they believe the same man held up women in Lincolnshire on Jan. 7, Deer Park on Jan. 8 and Wauconda on Jan. 10.
But, they have few clues to the identity of the purse snatcher.
In the Wauconda robbery on Sunday, the robber - described as a white male wearing a hooded sweatshirt and a ski mask - grabbed a purse from a 34-year-old woman while she was loading groceries into her trunk at Liberty Square Mall on Liberty Street at about 7:50 p.m., said Cmdr. John Thibault of the Wauconda Police Department. The offender grabbed the purse and took off running before jumping into a dark-colored SUV and driving away.
"Usually offenders in purse snatchings wait for someone to leave a purse in a shopping cart and walk away for a second then take it," Thibault said. "But, in this rash of purse snatchings, the offender has no issue physically confronting the person. That is one of the many similarities between our snatching Sunday and other purse thefts in the area."
On Jan. 8, Kildeer police Det. Paul Seekings said, the offender approached a 67-year-old woman about 7:30 p.m. in Deer Park Town Center and stole her purse.
Some of the contents of the purse were recovered in Mundelein, Seeking said. They were dusted for fingerprints, but police came up with nothing to identity the thief.
The first snatching was reported Jan. 7, at Lincolnshire Commons in the 900 block of Milwaukee Avenue in Lincolnshire.
A suspect matching the same description approached a woman in her 60s as she exited her vehicle. The man demanded her purse, Seeking said. However, in this case, Seekings said, the man showed a handgun when robbing the woman.
The victim tried to fight back, but the robber pushed her to the ground before taking off with the purse.
"He seems to be hitting larger shopping centers and picking targets of opportunity," Seekings said. "We just want to caution people to be on the lookout. If you feel something is wrong, then head back inside the store or in your car and call police."
He added people should take notice of their surroundings and, if something doesn't feel right, call for help.
"We do not mind going on calls for suspicious persons," he said.
Anyone with information about these robberies should contact Seekings at (847) 438-6010, Thibault at (847) 526-2421, or their local police department.