An intricate investigation involving numerous police departments led to the arrest of a McHenry man and Chicago woman who were wanted for stealing cars, mail and packages from the Chicago area, including in Lake Forest.
Candice K. Shandor, 33, of the 5000 block of North California Avenue in Chicago, and Dakotah R. Beeter, 26, of the 2900 block of West Lincoln Road in McHenry, are facing felony charges of two counts of burglary and one count of possession of a stolen vehicle.
The Lake Forest Police Department began an investigation into a burglary and the theft of mail and packages from three locations in Lake Forest. In one of the incidents, several cars were also stolen.
During the investigation, a police officer who was on routine patrol overnight on January 18 conducted a traffic stop on a stolen vehicle from a location in Lake Forest.
The driver, Julissa Montoya, was arrested and subsequent information was gathered by detectives.
Shandor and Beeter were identified as suspects for thefts that had recently occurred in the 1300 block of North Western, 300 block of East Westminster, and 0-100 block of East Franklin Place.
Lake Forest Deputy Police Chief Rob Copeland said the department worked with several area police departments including Gurnee and Chicago.
“[They] were able to establish surveillance and develop intelligence on the location of multiple suspects who were using area motels as bases of operation,” Copeland said.
Police were able to locate and recover a 2012 Audi A4, which had been stolen from the 100 block of East Franklin Place in Lake Forest, from a motel in Gurnee.
Inside the vehicle were additional pieces of mail recently stolen as well as other pieces of evidence.
A search warrant was obtained for a hotel room at the same location and police were able to recover additional stolen mail, credit cards in multiple names, clothing that matched surveillance photos and other valuable evidence, Copeland said.
Police were able to get a positive identification of Shandor and Beeter as two of the suspects behind the burglaries, mail thefts and stolen motor vehicles that occurred in Lake Forest during January.
Detectives presented their evidence to the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office on Thursday and arrest warrants were approved by a Lake County judge.
The Lake Forest Police Department, McHenry County Sheriff’s Office, Chicago Police Department, Illinois Department of Corrections, Oak Brook Terrace Police Department and DuPage County Sheriff conducted warrants at several locations on Friday in Lake, McHenry, Cook and DuPage counties.
Shandor and Beeter were located at an Airbnb in Oak Brook Terrace and taken into custody.
Police located a large quantity of evidence at the scene that implicated them in recent similar crimes in the Chicagoland area, Copeland said.
Shandor and Beeter were transported to the Lake County jail following detective interviews and they remain held on a $200,000 bond each.