State Senator Kirk Dillard's Home Hit in String of Recent Burglaries

By Joe O'Donnell, Hinsdale-Clarendon Hills Patch

The Hinsdale home of state Sen. Kirk Dillard (R-Hinsdale) is among those that have been burglarized this year and the senator says he's pushing for state legislation that will help local law enforcement investigate such burglaries. 

"I am trying to curtail the number of residential burglaries which has swept through the western suburbs ... and other parts of the city," Dillard said during a Friday morning conference call with media members.

Dillard said by talking with suburban police officials he has learned that most of the residential burglars that have victimized residents in Hinsdale and the surrounding area steal jewelry they quickly sell to cash-for-gold businesses. Dillard said those businesses are not currently mandated to keep sufficient transaction records and sellers can make the exchange "with no trail whatsoever."

The senator said he wants to set up a task force that would include police officials and cash-for-gold business representatives in an effort to develop recording procedures similar to those required of pawn shops.

With sale logs, investigators could go to a cash-for-gold business after a jewelry theft and be able to see who came in and sold what. 

The Glen Ellyn Village Board recently requiring store owners to enter merchandise from individual sellers into a database that tracks stolen jewelry.

"I don’t want to infringe on anyone’s privacy, but we need to give law enforcement the ability to go back and be able to solve these residential burglaries," Dillard said.

Dillard confirmed his house was burglarized recently. He did not confirm the date, but a residential burglary was reported by Hinsdale police March 16 in the same block as the address listed for Dillard on the Illinois State Board of Elections website.

That burglary took place between 7:15 and 9:30 p.m., while the home was unoccupied. The burglar broke in through a back door and jewelry was taken from bedrooms within the home.

"Residential burglaries are a violation of one’s sanctity of their own home," Dillard said Friday.

The senator said the burglary of his own home did not alone spur him to action.

"I’ve had this bill in for well more than a year," Dillard said. "The bill was put in a long time before they hit my house."

Hinsdale Police Chief Brad Bloom told the Village of Hinsdale's Zoning and Public Safety (ZPS) Committee in March that, as of then, there had been a "higher than normal" number of burglaries in Hinsdale in 2013.

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