Kelly Robertson was awakened around 5:30 a.m. Thursday by what she thought sounded like an explosion nearby.
When she opened her curtains to look outside, she saw an unfamiliar car with the doors open in her driveway. The white minivan had rammed into the rear of her daughter’s car, pushing it into the garage.
“I looked out the window, and I was like, ‘Oh my God,’ ” the 55-year-old Tinley Park woman said.
She opened her front door, only to have a Tinley Park police officer tell her and her family to remain inside. She said she later learned the van had been reported stolen and the four people inside the car had jumped over Robertson’s fence and taken off on foot.
Tinley Park police arrested four people, including two teenagers. Victor Dillon Jr., 20, of Chicago, and Mansurmusa Abdullah, 20, of Calumet City, were each charged with one count of burglary and one count of criminal trespass to a vehicle. The two 14-year-olds will be petitioned into juvenile court for burglary and criminal trespass to a vehicle, officials said.
One person from the car was immediately apprehended. The other three were apprehended at the nearby Tinley Park Convention Center, police said.
“It’s a blessing that no one at my address was hurt,” said Robertson, who was home with her husband and her 25-year-old daughter.
“It’s just a shame that now my daughter is out of a car,” she added.
According to a news release, Tinley Park police officers responded to a call at the Holiday Inn, 18501 Convention Center Drive, after security at the hotel notified police that four people were walking around the parking lot looking into cars. The four entered a white minivan and left the area without the lights on when police arrived, the release said.
Police followed as the vehicle drove slowly east on 183rd Street and continued onto northbound Ridgeland Avenue before it turned into a subdivision. As police approached 182nd Street, another unit joined them, and both units turned on their emergency lights in an attempt to stop the van.
The van then turned onto Robertson’s cul-de-sac on 66th Avenue near 182nd Place, where it then crashed into Robertson’s garage as it attempted to elude police.
“I don’t think they realized they had turned on a cul-de-sac,” she said, adding that perhaps the driver of the van mistook her driveway for a street. She also noted there is no sign posted on their street stating it was a dead end or that it was not a through route.
Police were able to recover items from the van that were stolen in other burglaries in the area.
An official from the village’s Building Department visited the home to inspect the garage Thursday morning, Robertson said. An insurance representative for the family also was expected to inspect the damage to the garage and car.
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