The City of Darien and surrounding communities have experienced a spike in residential burglaries in recent weeks. The burglaries in Darien have all been during the day, occurring when residents have left their homes, often for very short periods of time. We are making this notification to alert you to the problem and to seek your assistance in apprehending the offenders.

The Darien Police Department identified a burglary pattern several weeks ago, and adjusted police patrol to focus on the burglaries. The burglaries stopped until 11/17/2014 when the police were called to four new burglaries that day.

The current burglary pattern includes:

• Most of the burglaries have occurred on a Monday.
• Many of the homes targeted were corner homes.
• Entry was made most often through sliding glass doors, by force, and the entire house was ransacked.
• In most cases smaller items and valuables were taken that could fit in a pillow case.
• The burglaries occurred in the area between I-55, Lemont Rd., Cass Ave and Plainfield Rd.

The Darien Police Department is asking residents to help keep our community one of the safest in the Chicago metropolitan area. Here are some ways to help:

• Be alert to strangers and other suspicious actions, including suspicious activity at neighboring homes. If you see ANYTHING suspicious, CALL 911 IMMEDIATELY

• Be alert for cars driving repeatedly around the neighborhood, CALL 911 IMMEDIATELY.

• Be alert to suspicious noises, such as glass breaking, CALL 911 IMMEDIATELY.

• If strangers come to your door asking for people you don't know, DO NOT OPEN THE DOOR, CALL 911 IMMEDIATELY.

Please do not feel uncomfortable calling 9-1-1. Remember that we would rather check out suspicious activity, and find nothing, than not have you call 9-1-1 and have a residence robbed.

If you have a private surveillance video system, we are asking you to register it with the Darien Police Department. If there is a crime in your area, a member of the Darien Police Department would contact you to determine if your video surveillance system captured any images that could help with the investigation. If so, with your permission, we would download your images and inventory them, to be used in helping to solve the crime and prosecute the criminals. Please contact Stacy Sherman at 630-353-8145 or via e-mail at ssherman@darienil.gov for more information on this program.