15-year-old steals computer, security camera from Woodstock shop

The suspect who was caught on camera breaking into and stealing the security camera from a welding shop Tuesday night in northwest suburban Woodstock has been identified as a 15-year-old boy.

Woodstock detectives recovered a stolen desktop computer, laptop computer, security camera and router on Friday when they met with the boy and his guardian at their home, according to Woodstock police. The teen was identified through an anonymous tip after a surveillance photo of the suspect was released to the media.

A few minutes before 9 p.m. on Tuesday, the owner of Bott’s Welding at 335 N. Eastwood Dr. called police to report an in-progress burglary, police said.

The previous weekend, someone had broken in and taken a laptop computer, police said. The owner installed a security camera, which caught images of the boy entering the building through an unsecured window Tuesday night.

The camera, activated by motion, then caught the boy using a long object to knock the camera down, police said. But while the boy was disabling the camera, images were being sent in real time to the business owner, who provided the information to police.

The boy then escaped with the new security camera and a desktop computer, police said.

Officers arrived and saw the boy in the window, police said. They established a perimeter around the building and searched, but he escaped.

After the boy was identified as the suspect through an anonymous tip, authorities he learned he had entered the shop through an unsecured window four times over the course of a few days, police said. He was charged with four counts of burglary and has been released to his guardian.