Suburban Car Break-Ins Targeted at Parents Dropping Kids Off at Daycare: Police

Suburban Chicago saw a slew of car burglaries last year, but it seems like criminals are looking somewhere else for break-ins in 2017: daycare centers.

Suspects are keeping track of unattended cars when parents drop their kids off at daycare, police told NBC Chicago. Incidents in which criminals have smashed windows of cars and stolen objects while parents are walking their kids to the building's door have occurred both in Downers Grove and Lisle.

One mom, Deanna Killackey, told NBC she'd walked her children into their Downers Grove daycare center around 8:30 a.m. Tuesday and come back to a broken passenger-side window and a stolen purse.

"When you have such a hectic morning with two toddlers and their backpacks, you sometimes don't realize that things can happen in a matter of minutes," she told NBC. "We all were parked right in front of school, it's a very highly trafficked area."

She didn't leave her car open, either, she said — she'd locked all of her doors before walking her kids inside.

Lisle's Deputy Police Chief Ron Wilke said similar incidents were reported outside of a local daycare Monday night and a couple more Tuesday morning.

"I have heard that some of our neighboring communities have also been dealing with [break-ins]," he told NBC. "Whether they're related or not — we can't tell at this point, but we are investigating that line of options."

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