Beardstown residents are dealing with a recent rash of residential and vehicular burglaries. The Beardstown Police along with the Cass County Sheriff’s Department along with assistance from the Illinois State Police are in the process of investigating approximately 12 burglaries that occurred between late in the evening on September 1st into the evening of September 3rd.
Beardstown Chief of Police Martin Coad says that the local department made one arrest on September 2nd of one individual involved with some of the burglaries: “The thefts were basically all over the city. There wasn’t one general location. We ended up catching a guy in a stolen car, and there was a short pursuit that followed. He ended up bailing out of the car, and with the help of the county and my officers, we finally got him arrested and found several items that had been stolen throughout the city.”
According to the Schuyler County Jail booking report, Beardstown Police arrested 41 year old Perry G. Swan of Beardstown for possession of stolen property, possession of a stolen motor vehicle, and resisting a peace officer. According to a report from the Cass-Star Gazette, Swan took the vehicle from the 1100 block of Wall Street around 6:34PM. Moments later, a Beardstown Police officer was patrolling near the junction of Grand Avenue and Illinois Routes 67/100 /125 and saw the vehicle leaving the service drive at Andrews Mart. The officer took up pursuit of the car as it traveled southbound on Route 67. The stolen car’s driver made an unsuccessful U-turn attempt and fled on foot into a wooded area in the vicinity of the Star Cafe and the America’s Best Motel. A Cass County Sheriff’s Deputy later took Swan into custody behind the motel after residents spotted him entering to hide in a shed. Swan has since posted bond and been released from the Schuyler County Jail with a notice to appear in Cass County Court on September 14th.
According to the Star-Gazette, 7 break-ins were reported last Wednesday night and 5 more were reported last Thursday. A pair of forced entry burglaries were discovered at concessions stands in the Beardstown Park District. Coad says that most of the burglaries have come from unlocked homes and vehicles during the day. Coad says the public needs to check their belongings and report missing property as soon as possible to local authorities: “If the public can just call in and let us know if anything else was stolen from them, to help assist us in the investigation. We just want the public to know that they need to lock their doors, don’t leave your car sitting outside of your house running with the keys in it, lock everything up at night so we can slow this process down.”
Anyone with information into the thefts and burglaries should call 217-323-3131.