A man was charged Tuesday in connection with a July home invasion in the northwest suburbs that was caught on home security footage, according to police.
Scott Weissert, 55, was charged with residential burglary after authorities said he broke into a Mount Prospect home on July 23.
The incident occurred around 12:01 p.m. in the 300 block of North William Street, Mount Prospect police said in a release.
Surveillance video of the burglary showed a man breaking into a home while officials said a young girl hid inside a bedroom.
The girl told police she heard knocking at the front door while she was upstairs, but when she looked down the stairs and saw a man she didn’t know looking into the window, she didn’t answer.
The man knocked several times before he kicked open the front door and went upstairs, the footage shows.
The girl ran into a bedroom and locked the door as the man came up the stairs, authorities said. He then tried to open the door but the girl began screaming, causing him to flee the scene.
After releasing the footage, police said they received several tips identifying Weissert as the suspect.
Officers executed a search warrant at Weissert's apartment in the 1200 block of North Waterman Avenue in Arlington Heights Tuesday, where police said they found items inside connecting him to the burglary.
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He was taken into custody outside his home and appeared at a hearing Wednesday where he was ordered held on $200,000 bond.
Weissert was previously convicted of burglary multiple times since 1980 in connection with at least six separate incidents, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections.
Records show he was on parole at the time of the burglary in Mount Prospect after being released on parole in Nov. 2016. Weissert served nine years of a 20-year sentence for residential burglary beginning in 2006 - the most recent conviction in a pattern of being released from prison, then re-entering the following year, according to IDOC.
Weissert is scheduled to next appear in court on August 24 in Rolling Meadows.
