Wide-awake resident foils late-night burglar

A Bolingbrook man was charged with residential burglary after a Lisle resident surprised an intruder by being awake in the middle of the night.

"I don't think he was expecting that," said David Thomson, who caught the burglar in his home on the 4400 block of Basswood Drive.

Christopher R. Sievers, 20, was arrested at 3:40 a.m. March 6 and charged with two counts of residential burglary and one count of burglary, both felonies, as he tried to leave the Arbor Ridge subdivision, police said.

"I was up late. It was 3 a.m., and I heard footsteps upstairs," Thomson said. "And I thought for a minute, and I decided I wanted to see who it was."

When Thomson reached the top of the stairs, he found a stranger in his home, trying to get out a side door.

"He said, 'I'm sorry. Please don't beat me up,'" Thomson said.

The two talked briefly, and the burglar apologized, shook his hand and left, Thomson said.

Thompson called police, who quickly found the suspect.

"They had a perimeter around the neighborhood so fast that they caught him at the exit," Thomson said.

The suspect had been staying with a friend in the neighborhood, and he returned to that home to get his car, police said. His new Chevy Cobalt was parked there, and he left the home a short time later in his car.

"When he was pulling out, his vehicle momentarily stalled, and they were able to get a good look at him," said Sgt. Ron Wilke of the Lisle Police Department.

The officers stopped his car at Hatch Lane and Warrenville Road. Police brought Thomson to the scene to identify the suspect. Sievers was then arrested and charged with two counts of residential burglary and one count of burglary after allegedly taking items from two homes in the neighborhood and from a vehicle.

When police pulled Sievers over, they found a number of DVDs, Xbox games, CDs, gift cards, wireless phones and other items in his vehicle.

"Those were all items that were discovered to be stolen from the homes and car," Wilke said.

It was determined that a home on the 4300 block of Hatch Lane had been burglarized after the victim's purse was found in the car, police said.

"She wasn't even aware that she had been burglarized yet," Wilke said.

Sievers was taken to the DuPage County Jail. He was released March 7 after posting 10 percent of his $20,000 bond.