By Patricia Bogumil
Editor
Police nabbed a would-be burglar who made it easy for them by reportedly falling asleep on the job.
Christopher T. White, 26, Waterford, is charged with felony burglary and attempted burglary and two counts of felony bail jumping in separate incidents that occurred April 26 in the City of Burlington.
According to the criminal complaint filed in Racine County Circuit Court:
A resident in the 100 block of Chestnut Street, Burlington, told city police she heard a noise at her back window before dawn April 26, looked out, and saw a guy looking through the window. He smiled at her before running away down the fire escape.
Police found the screen to that window had been cut and removed; a second screen was also tampered with.
Shortly before 8:30 a.m. that day, police were called to a real estate office on Milwaukee Avenue, where a worker reported unauthorized entry had been made.
Police found a window broken on the building front and signs that other windows were tampered with. Two computer laptops and a desktop computer had been moved.
Also, a bear skin rug that used to be in the basement had been carted upstairs and police observed White sleeping on it.
He told officers that he was walking home after drinking the evening of April 25 and tried to get into the resident’s window because he was tired and cold and wanted to go inside to sleep.
White also reportedly confirmed he had entered the real estate building and taken items outside intending to steal them, but then had fallen asleep.
He made an initial appearance in Racine County Court April 29 and is next scheduled in court for a preliminary hearing on May 9.
If convicted of the charges, White faces a maximum of 30 years, 9 months in prison and $57,500 in fines.
White is also due in court a day later – May 10 – for a pretrial conference on two retail theft charges filed Feb. 21 involving the Burlington WalMart.
Court records show White with a Florida address when the February theft charges were filed, with a change of address to Burlington effective March 28. He is shown with a Waterford address in the April complaint.
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