Three charged with burglaries in NW Indiana

Three people were charged Tuesday with a string of burglaries in northwest Indiana since January.

Jessica Spillers, 29, of Hobart, and Aaron Marcadis, 31, of Portage, were each charged Tuesday with four felony counts of burglary in Lake County, Indiana, according to a statement from Hobart police. Erika Johnson, 30, of Portage, was charged with five felony counts of burglary.

Police were able to identify Spillers after they published surveillance footage of Spillers and Johnson cashing in coins at the Strack Van Til at 7760 E. 37th Ave. in Hobart, police said.

On May 5, a woman came home from work to find that her home in the 900 block of Wells Court in Hobart had been broken into and someone had stolen jewelry, DVDs, and a few jars that were filled with change, according to court documents.

After notifying police, the homeowner called Strack and Van Til and asked if anyone had come in to cash in a large sum of change. The store said someone had on the same day the burglary occurred, according to court documents.

Hobart police then obtained surveillance footage from that transaction and published it. An anonymous caller identified one of the women in the footage as Spillers, according to court documents.

After police showed her the surveillance footage, Spillers identified the other woman as Johnson. She then detailed how the two women and Marcadis, Johnson’s boyfriend, broke into the house on Wells Court and admitted to another May 5 burglary in the 900 block of South County Line Road in Hobart, according to court documents.

Spillers told police that she, Johnson and Marcadis had also burglarized a house on Jan. 27 in the 1300 block of south Indiana in Crown Point and that she and Johnson were responsible for a March 21 burglary in the 7700 block of Rohrman Road in Schererville, according to court documents. Further investigation indicated that Johnson and Marcadis burglarized another house on March 29 in the 1700 block of West Third Street in Hobart.

Porter County sheriff’s police took Johnson into custody May 12 from her home in the 900 block of Camelot Manner in Portage after a search turned up items reported stolen in in the Lake County burglaries, according to court documents.

Court dates for the three were not immediately available.