Hapless Costco burglars drop stolen jewels, leave trail for police dog, Illinois cops say

A police dog named Bear apprehended three men charged with stealing $20,000 in jewelry from an area Costco, Illinois officials say.

At 2:20 a.m. on Saturday, police responded to a burglary alarm at a Costco in Mettawa. When they arrived, they found broken glass and an open security door, Lake County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.

As officers were establishing a perimeter around the store, they received word that three people were running across I-94 toward an Illinois Department of Transportation utility truck parked on an exit ramp, police say.

When the three men saw the truck, they immediately dropped the bags they were carrying and ran off, police say. The bags were filled with $20,000 worth of Costco jewelry and “burglary tools,” according to the release. Officers also found masks and gloves nearby.

That’s when officials called in a police dog named Bear. Bear tracked the burglars from where they had dropped the bags to a concrete wall which supports an overhead sign near I-94, police say.

The three men were hiding behind the wall and after Bear began to bark, they surrendered to police, according to the release.

Joseph Park, 24, Cortez Morrow, 37, and Clarene Blanchard, 26, were arrested and charged with burglary, criminal damage to property and possession of burglary tools — all felonies, the release says.

Mettawa is roughly 33 miles northwest of Chicago.

This story was originally published January 5, 2020 at 11:06 AM with the headline "Hapless Costco burglars drop stolen jewels, leave trail for police dog, Illinois cops say."