Cops: Man running ‘cleaning service’ stole from Orland Park home

A man has been charged with stealing jewelry from a house he had been hired to clean last month in southwest suburban Orland Park.

John A. Maslar Jr., 47, has been charged with a Class 2 felony count of theft, according to a statement from Orland Park police.

He had put up “small generic yard signs” throughout Orland Park advertising a house cleaning service, police said. The signs had a phone number on them but did not include a company name.

The victim hired Maslar who cleaned the home twice before he showed up on May 27 for his third session, police said. The homeowner left him unattended in the house for a short time to run errands and returned to find Maslar packing up and leaving early.

The homeowner then realized that the house hadn’t been cleaned and “several expensive jewelry items” were now missing, according to police.

One of the items had been pawned at a south suburban pawn shop, and detectives eventually identified Maslar as the person who pawned it, police said. He was arrested Wednesday.

Maslar, of the 14200 block of 84th Avenue in Orland Park, was ordered held on a $75,000 bond Thursday, according to police and the Cook County sheriff’s office. His next court date is scheduled for June 29 in Bridgeview.

At the time of his arrest, Maslar had two active arrest warrants for theft charges from Texas, police said. He will face extradition to Texas after he is prosecuted for the Illinois charges.