HP Package Thief Arrested
Highland Park Department of Public Safety successfully apprehended a thief who has been stealing packages from outside Highland Park houses, according to a statement released Friday at approximately 3 p.m.
After catching the thief trying to return stolen merchandise in Highland Park Village at 2:20 p.m. Thursday, police arrested him on a charge of theft. He also had multiple Class C warrants out of Dallas PD and Irving PD.
Police found a number of shipping boxes and packages bearing different names and addresses in a silver Ford Fusion in the Highland Park Village parking lot that matched an eye witness description of a getaway car in two theft offenses two days previous, when packages were stolen from the front porch of a house in the 4500 block of Belfort Place.
The car was searched after an employee at Jimmy Choo in Highland Park Village called an off-duty officer working on site.
The employee had become suspicious when the man attempted to return a pair of shoes that he said his wife had bought the day before, which the store staff recognized as a lie.
Officers confirmed the merchandise as stolen by comparing serial numbers of the property and verifying the delivery with UPS.
“I’m very proud of the cooperative efforts to apprehend the suspect responsible for package thefts in Highland Park,” Highland Park Public Information Officer Lt. Lance Koppa said. “We had excellent eye witness information, a vigilant employee, and quick response by HPDPS officers to make the arrest.”
Previous to the Dec. 14 thefts in the area, a victim reported on Nov. 28 that three packages were stolen from the front porch of a house in the 4400 block of Rheims Place during several days when the owners were out of town. The stolen merchandise included $1,299 brown Neiman Marcus boots and $30 of Chicago Cubs memorabilia.
Highland Park investigators obtained a search warrant on the suspect’s home and found additional stolen property.
Highland Park CID is collaborating with Dallas PD, University Park PD, UPS, and FedEx to identify all the victims related to the thefts. So far, the items recovered range in value of $16 to several thousand dollars.
