(The following report by M. Daniel Gibbard appeared on the Chicago Tribune website on December 28.)
CHICAGO — A Chicago man who allegedly told police he had no use for churches has been charged with finding one: a ready supply of cash and gift cards.
Robert S. Johnson, 40, of the 2800 block of South Keeler Avenue was arrested in Antioch last week and has been charged with burgling four houses of worship and a dental clinic in the northern Lake County town, plus three churches in Vernon Hills.
“He [made] a statement that he hated churches because he thought they stole money from people and he didn’t think that was right,” Antioch Deputy Police Chief Ron Roth said. “He said he had no use for churches.”
Johnson, who allegedly made off with several hundred dollars from the Antioch burglaries, was arrested Dec. 22 after a police officer noticed a man near a downtown building around 2:45 a.m.
The officer questioned the man, noticed a bulge under his jacket and searched him, finding burglary tools, a sack of coins and a handwritten list of 11 churches and addresses in town, police said.
“The officer that caught this guy did a very nice job,” Roth said. “He spotted him at 2:45 in the morning, when most people are home asleep, and he was alert enough to find someone coming out from behind a building and put two and two together.”
When police went to each address on the list, they found four churches had been broken into, Roth said. Evidence found on Johnson and at the churches tied him to the burglaries, he said.
“According to him, he got the addresses from a library and got the maps from the Internet,” he said.
Johnson told police he was looking for money or gift cards, Roth said.
Antioch police sent a bulletin to surrounding towns about the arrest and soon received calls from cops in Lake Villa, Grayslake, Libertyville, Vernon Hills and Mundelein, where churches had been burglarized in recent months.
Similarities, including the use of fire extinguishers to smash open locked church office doors, prompted police in those towns to question Johnson and led to the charges by Vernon Hills, Roth said.
Also, Johnson, who did not have a car, told police he rode a Metra train to Antioch, and the other towns all have rail stations, Roth said.
“He would get on in Chicago and take it where he wanted to go,” Roth said.
Johnson has a string of convictions dating to 1992, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections.
He was released from Vienna Correctional Center on parole in November 2004 after serving 4 years of a 9-year sentence for burglary, Roth said. He is being held without bail in the Lake County Jail and is scheduled to appear in court at 9 a.m. Friday, jail officials said.
Rev. Aaron Barrett, pastor of Antioch’s Heartland Baptist Church, said the thief came in through an unlocked window and did no damage. Only a small amount of cash was taken, Barrett said.
“My reaction is disappointment that someone would break into a house of worship,” Barrett said.