Waukegan office burglar who ran through wall gets 6 years

A Waukegan man was sentenced to six years in prison Tuesday after he admitted stealing the contents of a woman’s purse in a Lake Forest office building.

Cedric Brown’s entry of a guilty plea to burglary in Lake County Circuit Court was a much more subdued affair than his May 31 arrest, which featured Brown crashing through a wall and escaping from a moving squad car.

Assistant State’s Attorney Steven DeRue said Brown, of the 3000 block of West Grand Avenue, followed a group of employees through the front entrance of Trustmark Insurance in Lake Forest around 7:30 a.m. on May 31.

Brown asked a security officer if he could use a bathroom, DeRue said, and was given directions to the nearest one.

Instead of going to the bathroom, Brown walked into an area of office cubicles and began rummaging through a purse on one of the desks.

The woman who owned the purse saw what was happening and screamed, and Brown ran off with $60 in cash, her car keys and credit cards.

Other employees in the building gave chase, and Brown ran through a partial wall in the building before the employees were able to subdue him and hold him for police.

Lake Forest police took Brown to Northwestern Lake Forest Hospital where one of his arms was placed in a sling and he was released back into police custody.

As Brown was being driven to the police station for booking, he reached out of a window and opened the car door from the outside.

He jumped out of the car and ran down the street for a short distance before being stopped by police.

DeRue agreed to drop charges of identity theft, escape and obstruction of justice in exchange for Brown’s guilty plea to the burglary charge.