Prowler Steals Wallet in Home Invasion

A homeowner encountered a prowler coming out of the kitchen during the early morning hours of April 18.

said the homeowner woke up around 5 a.m. after he heard someone open the front door of his home on the 4100 block of West 99th Street.

Initially thinking it was his son coming home, the homeowner poked his head out the screen door to see if his son had gone back to retrieve something from his car.

When he did not see his son outside, the homeowner encountered a man walking toward him from the kitchen. Police said the homeowner startled the man, who told him he was looking for “PJ.”

The man quickly walked by and left through the front door. Once outside the prowler, described as a male black with a bald head and wearing a gray hoodie and baggy jeans, ran eastbound down 99th Street toward Pulaski Road.

Police said the light bulb had been unscrewed from the exterior back porch light fixture. The homeowner told police the deadbolt on the door the screened-in porch was locked when he went to bed the night before. Police said the homeowner’s wallet was missing from the kitchen table, along with a hidden spare key to the screened in porch door.

Police said the deadbolt was difficult to open and required some previous experience with the lock.

The homeowner canceled his credit cards but not before one of them was used at a Marathon station in Chicago at 5:30 a.m.