Niles Man, 81, Chases Off Burglars With Antique Irish Shillelagh

NILES, IL — A longtime Niles resident repelled a trio of ruse burglars with an antique Irish shillelagh, beating one over the head and cracking the windows of their SUV before they fled, Pioneer Press reported.

On Nov. 4, a man showed up at the front door of a North Ozanam Avenue home in a reflective vest claiming that wanted to inspect a fuse box due to a transformer fire in the neighborhood the day before, the resident's wife told police. While the couple was in the basement with the man, she heard two other men upstairs.

Dan Donovan, an 81-year-old former U.S. Marine, rushed upstairs and grabbed his grandfather's shillelagh, which had been propped up in the corner of the dining room, he told the Niles Herald-Spectator. Donovan said he pursued the trio, striking one in the back of the head with the club.

A shillelagh — usually pronounced shill-lay-lee — is a stick weapon and walking stick made of knotty oak or blackthorn sapling, and closely associated with Irish culture.

While his wife called police, Donovan chased the trio outside and, barefoot, began striking an SUV they had parked in his driveway with the club, Pioneer Press reported. The burglars managed to steal at least a pillowcase from the home, and Donovan said he was not sure if they had time to make off with anything else.

"Hopefully they got nothing more than a headache," he told the paper. "And hopefully they pursue another occupation."

Ruse burglaries, or diversionary residential burglaries, generally involve multiple burglars, with one of them managing to talk his way into a home by pretending to be a utility worker or a municipal employee of some kind. They may wear construction vests or present phony credentials. One of them will distract the resident, sometimes leading them into the basement or the back yard, before another burglar enters the home and steals valuables.

For instance, one day before the Niles burglary, multiple ruse burglars purporting to be employees of the village of Winnetka managed to steal an unknown amount of cash and jewelry from a Lindenwood Drive home after being allowed in to "check for possible water contamination."

To avoid the scam, which usually targets seniors alone at home during the day, police recommend not allowing anyone unfamiliar inside your home unless you have a scheduled appointment. If someone claims to be with a public agency or company, ask them for their identity and confirm it with their employer.

The Niles couple told Pioneer Press they received a letter from ComEd the day before the burglars arrived mentioning work taking place in the area and possible power outages. They wonder if it may have been part of the scam.

Read more from the Niles Herald-Spectator »