Police Force Men From Sauna For Locker Burglary

Dan Stoica, 23, of North Maplewood Avenue, Chicago, was charged with felony burglary and theft/possession of stolen property, and Robert Crianga, 20, of Skokie was charged with felony burglary and possession of burglary tools during an incident at the Niles Family Fitness Center March 3.

The chain of events started Sunday, Feb. 27 at about 2:45 p.m. when a man reported $250 missing from his gym locker at the fitness center. He told police two men, later identified as Crianga and Stoica, who were speaking a language he believed was Romanian, were hanging around and seemed to be stalling.

The victim's locker was on his lock, but he noticed his clothing had been rearranged and the cash was missing.

Fitness center staff reviewed video and saw the two offenders by the pool around 2:30, and leaving the building around 3:30. One employee identified one offender, whom he knew from Niles West High School. 

Three days later, on March 3, Fitness Center staff called police to say the two men had returned to the facility. Police approached them as they were in the sauna and told them to get out and show their identification. They led police to their lockers in the locker room. As police were telling them they wanted to interview them about Sunday's incident, Crianga stretched and tried to drop an object on top of the lockers. Police noticed and identified the object as a black "lock popper," a burglary tool used to force open padlocks. 

As police were taking the two men to the police station, word arrived that a Fitness Center customer reported that someone had opened his locker padlock and removed $8 in singles from his wallet. Police found $8 in singles in the pocket of pants that Crianga said were his. 

The men have a court date March 17 in the Skokie branch of the Cook County courts.

$2,345 fraudulently charged to credit card

A Morton Grove resident reported to police that she lost her credit card on Feb. 15, and someone used it to make unauthorized transactions at Niles stores. At the first store, $1,065.39 was charged, and two transactions at the second store totaled $$1,279.61. The total of both transactions is $2,345. A report was made to the credit card company's fraud department.