March 13, 2020
By Meredith Colias-Pete
Two Hammond siblings face charges after allegedly being seen on camera pawning stolen parts from a neighboring warehouse, documents show.
Police allege they did so while living in an adjacent business unit owned by the woman’s boyfriend’s father who recently died, records say.
Amoreena Hall, 44, and Isreal Hall, 40, are charged with burglary and corrupt business influence, both level 5 felonies.
Hammond police arrived to write up a burglary report on the 8000 block of New Jersey Avenue in the business park south of the Borman Expressway. The owner said his business, Hydraulic Component Services, rebuilds hydraulic, pneumatic and mechanical parts like pumps, motors, valves and cylinders, he told police.
He noticed brass and equipment missing from the “overflow” warehouse on six weekends between August 2017 and January 2018 including a grinder, air punch, air drill, two air grinders, and a cordless DeWalt drill, charges say.
After thinking an employee was stealing, he set up cameras, which showed a man “climbing up an electrical pipe” attached to the building’s side, removing a corrugated wall panel near the roof and dropping down into his unit, records say.
The owner told police the man lived in the building’s middle unit with another woman and man, charges say. That unit’s former owner, housing a “repair type business” had recently died, police said.
Since then, the son was “using the location as a place to stay” with girlfriend Amoreena Hall and her brother.
In the middle unit, police found a wall panel leading into the far unit, housing Meyer’s Distributors, which also said “numerous items” were stolen in the same time frame, charges say.
That panel was “removed and put back many times”, police said. Inside Meyer’s Distributors, there was access to a ceiling panel up to an attic that spanned the whole building. One the other end, another panel with a “makeshift ladder” dropped down to the Hydraulic Component Services unit, police said.
Through Leads Online, police found “virtually all” of the building’s stolen items sold or pawned to Scrap International, Lake Iron & metal, Super Pawn, EZ Pawn, charges say.
Police spotted Amoreena Hall, occasionally joined by Isreal Hall on camera at pawn shops selling the goods, documents allege. Hall’s boyfriend was not charged.
Both siblings have bonds set at $5,000 cash surety each.
Source: https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/ct-ptb-hammond-warehouse-pawn-st-0314-20200313-tih4gvavuvgszcaodjiq6szqyq-story.html