WHITE CO., Ill. - The burglars and illegal entry crims were busy this weekend in White County as evidenced by the sheriff’s department reports.
One of the most onerous was a burglary/thief who broke into an elderly woman’s home.
The lady, 99-year-old Maxine Howell, notified White County authorities on Saturday (October 29) of a break-in at her home; Deputy Randy Graves responded to this at about 10 a.m. Saturday.
Howell, who lives alone, advised Graves that she’s very hard of hearing as well.
She said that she noticed that morning that someone had kicked in the rear door to her residence, but the suspect hadn’t rummaged through the house as a burglar would; Graves noted that there were only a few items taken: A tan-colored fireproof safe, and two gold rings, one with pearls and diamond chips.
Just a couple of days before this incident, Graves reports, he had responded to the Mike Eyman (NAME CORRECTED) residence on the 1200 block of West Sycamore in Carmi, where behind the residence is an older Park model trailer used for storage.
Eyman, 27, advised that at 4:27 in the morning of Thursday, Oct. 28, his dogs were barking and woke him up. At that time, he observed a vehicle parked in the rear of the residence with the lights on. Before Eyman could see who it was, they drove off. Graves checked and saw tire tracks in the grass where the dew was, this at about 8 a.m. when he responded to the scene.
Graves also observed that a fence around the trailer had been knocked over and entry was made to the front door of the trailer. Inside, the suspect had rummaged through miscellaneous boxes. Bags were reported to be missing from a boat and a tent, with the boat bag being gray and white in color, the tent bag gray and red. The boat and tent were both there; the bags were suspected to have been used to carry stolen property. Eyman advised he’d had multiple baseball cards taken from the trailer as well; the cards were all pre-Mark McGuire era.
Reports were taken; anyone with information about these incidents is urged to contact the White County Sheriff’s Department.