Burglar Crew’s GPS Tracking Device Led to Oak Lawn Man’s Arrest: Cops

GLENCOE, IL — Investigators used a GPS tracking device to follow a suspected burglary crew from Chicago to the scene of a burglary last month at a home in Glencoe, authorities said.

Dominick Wasso, 19, of Oak Lawn, was arrested last week and charged with home burglary and possession of burglary tools in connection with a Jan. 17 incident, records show.

Wasso was the passenger in a 2010 Ford Escape on which investigators with the North Regional Major Crimes Task Force (NORTAF) placed the court-approved tracking device, according to prosecutors.

Detectives began tracking the car to Glencoe in the 3800 block of South Rockwell Street in Chicago, Assistant District Attorney Paige Reinauer said Thursday during his first court appearance in Skokie.

“NORTAF investigators conducted covert and physical surveillance of the vehicle,” Reinhaur said. “[Wasso] was caught on video getting out of the vehicle at a gas station two hours before the crime.”

The SUV circled Glencoe for about an hour before stopping in front of a house on the 500 block of Washington Street, where it stayed for about 12 minutes, Reinauer said. After it left, Glencoe Police found someone had broken in through multiple entrances and ransacked the interior.

NORTAF continued to track the SUV to the Irving Park neighborhood, where officers from multiple departments attempted to stop it. However, the driver fled from police and crashed into an unmarked Glencoe Department of Public Safety squad car, according to prosecutors.

The tracking device led investigators to Block 3100 of the South Canal, where the SUV was found abandoned with two crowbars, two airguns, a hammer and more than a dozen pieces of jewelry identified as stolen from the Glencoe home, Reinauer said.

Surveillance video showed Wasso and the other occupants of the SUV getting out and getting into a pickup truck, which investigators realized was also being used by the burglar crew.

The pickup truck belonged to one of Wasso’s relatives, and after prosecutors towed it and searched it, police found papers with one of the names he is known to be using.

“[Police] addressing the crew involved by a specific name and investigating them with a series of burglaries,” said Reinauer.

At the time of the incident, Wasso was in custody while awaiting trial in DuPage County on similar charges.

Dominick D. Wasso, 19, of Oak Lawn, has been charged with domestic burglary, among other charges, in both Cook and DuPage counties, records show. (Cook County Sheriff’s Office)

In June 2022, following an arrest by Willowbrook police, prosecutors charged Wasso with domestic burglary, aggravated escape and fleeing police, and misdemeanor. He is scheduled to appear in court on March 23 in that case, records show.

Associate Cook County Judge Anthony Calabrese ordered Wasso incarcerated unless he can meet the cash portion of his $25,000 bond on the new charges.

Calabrese said he would have considered posting more affordable bail “but for the fact that he appears to have an identical pending case that is currently pending at DuPage.”

Wasso is scheduled to appear in court Thursday to review the bond.

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