Man Charged in Break-in at Wheaton Library

A Wheaton man is charged with felony damage to government property and trespassing state land after he broke a window at the Wheaton Public Library last Friday and climbed into the building to retrieve a bag, police said.

According to the police report Erik Oppenhagen, 43, of the 700 block of Liberty Drive in Wheaton, left his bag in the library Friday after he got a call from a friend, who told him he had a bottle of vodka. He left the library to meet the friend, drank half the bottle of vodka at Vintage Rides and returned to the library around 6:20 p.m. to get his bag.

According to the report, a woman returning books at the library Friday evening said she saw Oppenhagen “angry and irate,” banging on the windows and shouting “let me in,” around 6 p.m.

She said Oppenhagen then grabbed a rock and walked around the side of the buidling and got a bike. As she left, she heard a loud noise and saw a shattered window next to the man's bike on the ground, police said.

A library employee also reported Oppenhagen after she saw him trying to get into the library after it closed.

When Oppenhagen got into the library through the broken window and realized police were outside, he used a tape dispenser to try and break another window to escape. When the tape dispenser was unsuccessful, Oppenhagen climbed through the window he broke, further cutting his leg after climbing in, and ran from police, according to the police report.

He ran to the intersection of Cross Street and Wesley Avenue, where police caught and arrested him. He was transferred to Central DuPage Hospital.

The cost of damage to the library windows is $1,500 to $2,000, police said.

He was booked at the Wheaton Police Department and taken to DuPage County Jail that night.

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