Crime & Safety

UPDATE: Two Men Charged With Burglary After Search Leads to Lockdown

Frankfort police are still searching for a handgun one of the suspects was said to be carrying.

  • UPDATED (3:50 p.m., Friday, Oct. 28): Identities of the suspects and information about the weapon.
  • UPDATED (3:25 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 27): Comments from Frankfort School District 157-C Superintendent Tom Hurlburt and neighbor Kevin Ziegler.

Two men were charged Friday after an attempted burglary Thursday that led the to lock down two schools and tell residents to lock and secure their doors.

Ira D. Cunningham, 32, of Markham, and William J. Jenkins, 28, of Harvey, were charged with residential burglary, theft and obstruction of identification. Bail was set Friday at $200,000 each. Their next hearing is Nov. 18.

A neighbor called police around 11:20 a.m. Thursday, to report seeing one of the men enter the house in the 200 block of Linden Drive, said Frankfort Police Commander Kevin Keegan. Cunningham was caught immediately with help from police departments in New Lenox, Mokena, Manhattan, as well as the Will County Sheriff's Office and Joliet K-9 unit. A perimeter also was set up in the Sauk Trail and Linden Drive area, and an Indiana law enforcement helicopter was called in.

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Jenkins fled and was arrested near Ontario Street and Center Road at about 12:40 p.m. Keegan said Jenkins was allegedly seen with a handgun, but he did not have a gun when he was captured. Investigators are still searching for a weapon, Keegan added.

A backpack, watches, a Nintendo GameBoy, camera items and a cell phone were reported stolen, according to the Will County prosecutor at Friday's hearing. The homeowners were not present during the burglary, Keegan said.

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During the search, and were locked down, and police used its reverse-911 system to alert residents to lock downs and stay safe. Chelsea received the lockdown notice from police around 11:30 a.m., which meant students were kept in classrooms and all doors were locked, said Frankfort School District 157-C Superintendet Tom Hurlburt.

When the district was alerted that there wasn't a direct threat to the building, the school went into a "soft lockdown," which returned students to a regular class schedule put kept them inside, Hurlburt said. Parents were alerted of the situation by e-mail blasts and on the school's website, he added.

Kevin Ziegler, who lives on Center Road, near Sauk Trail, said he saw police cars drive into the neighborhood around 11:30 a.m., "going at Mach 2 with their hair on fire."

"For a while it looked like a police circus," he said. "I've never seen anything like that in my life. ... The cops did a great job. From what I can tell they were everywhere. Literally, and this is no exaggeration, this entire three-block area was saturated with police. I thought maybe it might've been a train derailment at first." 

"(The police) did a great job, but it was scary for a while."

Patch correspondent Jesse Marx contributed to this story.


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