Carpentersville police arrest pair after attack on family
Carpentersville police arrested two men on charges that they forced their way into a home in February, tied up the homeowners and then took the homeowners' five-year-old daughter with them while they stole money out of the couple's account.
Antonio Espino, 22, of the 1500 block of Crimson Lane, Palatine and Brian M. Norbut, 22, of the 800 block of Dorman Drive, Streamwood, were each charged Thursday with one count of home invasion, three counts of aggravated kidnapping, two counts of aggravated vehicular hijacking and one count of aggravated robbery.
They remain in the Carpentersville jail to await their Friday morning bond hearing in Elgin.
On Feb. 1, according to police, Espino and Norbut went to a house in the 4000 block of Stratford Lane at 9 p.m., shortly after the family returned from a shopping trip.
As the family was entering their house, Espino and Norbut, showing a gun and wearing ski masks, forced them into their house and tied up the 39-year-old man, the 41-year-old woman and their five-year-old daughter.
Espino and Norbut took several items out of the house and the couple's daughter as well.
Using the couple's car, Espino and Norbut drove to a local bank with the girl and using the couple's bank information, withdrew an unknown amount of cash from their account.
They then drove the girl back home and fled the scene - nobody was injured at any point during the crimes, police said.
Wednesday, Carpentersville police arrested Norbut at 4 p.m. in Elk Grove Village inside Home Depot, where he works as a cashier, said Cmdr. Timothy Bosshart.
Espino was arrested at his Palatine home on midnight Wednesday.
"It was a lot of hard work and a lot of good, old-fashioned chasing down every lead you have," Bosshart said of solving the case.
Moreover, Carpentersville police are working with several other departments - Schaumburg, Palatine, Rolling Meadows and Prospect Heights - to determine whether the pair are responsible for similar incidents in Cook and Kane counties.
Espino has a prior history that includes prior convictions for misuse of a credit card, residential burglary and theft in Kane, Cook and DuPage counties, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections.
Most recently, and he was sentenced to four years in prison on a 2008 burglary charge.
Espino was released from prison after serving less than a year and his parole would have been discharged in September 2011.
"I would anticipate, too, that he'll be getting a parole violation as well," Bosshart said. "So he'll probably go right to prison from bond call."