A rise in thefts and burglaries continue to raise concerns locally. This recent surge being seen, McDonough County Sheriff Nick Petitgout shares they are referred too ‘meth thefts:’
“You get a certain person or group of people who commit crime, they steal from us, law abiding taxpayers, and then they take our stuff and they trade it or sell it so they can get enough money to buy methamphetamine and run some money through some slot machines in Illinois. It is kind of a game that we have been playing now. They have figured out. In Illinois if you commit a burglary to a building, you don’t get detained and it is very unfortunate because we write these people tickets and send them out the door and they just do it again and again and again. When we finally get them to court or finally get them some sort of resolve, it has been years later and they have eight, nine, ten, sixteen felonies on their record and they go to prison for one of them.”
Continue to make sure you are locking homes, garages, sheds, vehicles, and any other items of value to avoid being an easy target.
