Newsroom

Crime Stoppers Crime of the Week
November 30, 2017

Officer Mike Badger, Crime Stoppers Coordinator for Sangamon and Menard counties.

It’s the holiday season and shoppers have many more venues to make purchases than they had in the past, and criminals are trying to victimize innocent shoppers any way they can. I’d like to offer a couple tips on safe holiday shopping. First, when shopping at retail and big box stores, don’t leave purchases visible in your vehicles and practice common safety sense in parking lots.  If you are making purchases from Craig’s list, Facebook, or other e-commerce sites, ALWAYS meet buyers or sellers at well-lit public places with security cameras and do NOT meet buyers or sellers while you are alone. There are safe e-commerce zones all over the area including the Springfield Police Station and locations in Petersburg, Greenview, and Athens. Police have taken several reports of people attempting to buy items from posts on Facebook or E-Commerce sites such as Craig's List only to become victimized by someone pretending to have interest in buying (or selling) the item and then robbing them at a designated meeting point such as a parking lot of a fast food restaurant.

If you are making purchases directly on the internet, make sure you are on a valid website, not a clone site designed to steal your credit card information or drain your bank accounts. Many internet scams are initiated when people receive an email offering great deals and offering a link to a major retail store. After making the internet purchase and checking out with their credit card or routing number, they discover that the link was to a clone site of the retail store. Many of these clone sites are nearly perfect replica's of the true website.

If you can identify the suspects in any theft cases or scams, Crime Stoppers would like to hear from you.  Just call the tipline at 788-8427 or leave it on the website Cashfortips.us. Happy SAFE shopping!

Crime Stoppers Crime of the Week

 November 22, 2017

Officer Mike Badger, Crime Stoppers Coordinator for Sangamon and Menard counties.

On November 6th an Armed Robbery occurred at the Dollar General store on Wabash Avenue in Springfield and a cash reward of up to Twenty Five Hundred Dollars ($2500) is available for information leading to the arrest of the perpetrator. The incident occurred just before 10 pm when a subject entered the business and held a black handgun, possibly with a chrome barrel, at the neck of a store clerk. The employee was forced to open the cash drawer told to (quote) “empty the money” out of the cash register. The black male suspect was tall with a medium build and was approximately 25 to 35 years of age. He was wearing a dark blue hooded sweatshirt, white tennis shoes, black gloves, and had on a black bandanna. Surveillance photos of the suspect are on the Crime Stopper web site Cashfortips.us.

Crimes Stoppers Crime of the Week
November 16, 2017

Officer Mike Badger, Crime Stoppers Coordinator for Sangamon and Menard counties.

During the holiday shopping season most retail and department stores are filled with customers making their gift purchases for friends and family. It’s also a time of the year when thieves and shoplifters think they can get something for nothing only to find out that security personnel and surveillance cameras have captured their crimes leaving them with nothing but a ride to the county jail in handcuffs. We’ve posted images on the Crimestopper website Cashfortips.us of a female who’s responsible for stealing several pairs of sunglasses at a local vision center. Police want to identify her because when they get her name, she’ll be charges with felony retail theft.

Crime Stoppers Crime of the Week
November 9, 2017

Officer Mike Badger, Crime Stoppers Coordinator for Sangamon and Menard counties.
 
Every week Crime Stoppers highlights a “Crime of the Week” in which we encourage people who have information about criminal activity to call in with information to help solve crimes. This anonymous tip program has led to many solved cases and dozens of arrests this year and we encourage you continue with your tips. You’re making the Sangamon and Menard county areas safer for our families and better places to live in.

Crime Stoppers Crime of the Week

November 2, 2017

Officer Mike Badger, Crime Stoppers Coordinator for Sangamon and Menard counties.

Police are looking for four subjects involved in a home invasion which occurred in Auburn in the early morning hours of October 21^st. A female and her two children were awoken by the sounds of someone prying on a back door to their residence shortly before the subjects gained entry and threatened to shoot her. After demanding the victims money and the keys to her car, the suspects left in her car with the her television and other electronics.