Family Of 3 Arrested In Connection With Burglary Of Elderly Woman's Leyden Home: Police

A man from Arlington Heights was arrested Jan. 4 for robbing a 76-year-old woman in Leyden Township, Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart announced Wednesday.

Walter M. Reed, 29, was taken into custody about a month and a half after the ruse burglary, which took place around 12:30 p.m. Nov. 23, police said in a release. He allegedly entered the elderly woman’s Rhodes Avenue home that day claiming he was a construction worker fixing a fence and lured her into the back of her home.

At the same time, while Reed was distracting the woman, another cohort reportedly went through her house and stole jewelry and cash. Reed quickly left in a white sedan.

Reed was identified by the sheriff’s department with the help of the Illinois State Police Ruse Burglary Task Force, and members of the task force arrested him about a week ago near his home. He was charged with one count of residential burglary and false representation and appeared in bond court Jan. 5.

At his bond hearing at the Maywood Courthouse, Reed was ordered to electronic monitoring, according the release.

Detectives who attended Reed’s hearing Jan. 5 also noticed an out-of-place white Nissan Altima in the courthouse parking lot that had mismatched registration. Police quickly found the car had been reported stolen out of Lynn, Massachusetts, and that the people who had stolen it were Reed’s parents, Michael J. Johnson, 50, and Apple Reed, 47.

Johnson and Apple Reed, both from Mount Prospect, were also taken into custody that day and charged with the misdemeanor.

The stolen car was determined by the ruse burglary victim to be the same car Reed had left in the day of the crime, police said.

In his release, Dart said he wanted to remind the public that Reed and his parents are presumed innocent until they’re proven guilty.

Mugshots via the Cook County Sheriff's Office