Questions about a pillowcase

By Gus Bode

A man cashing in pillowcase full of coins is one person police are seeking in connection with a string of recent burglaries in Carbondale.

Some of the streets burglarized include Springer Street and Bleyer Street. Although police have not made any concrete connections in the burglaries, they are looking for a man they think may have more information.

Carbondale Police Lieutenant Paul Echols said they are looking for white male who redeemed a pillowcase full of coins at Schnuck’s last Tuesday for more than $100 cash at the Coinstar machine at about 6:00 a.m.

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According to police, the man was wearing an orange University of Texas hat and a black shirt with the same logo.

“Until we actually get more information or talk to him he can’t really be a suspect, he’s just somebody we need to interview,” Echols said. “And it is related to some of those burglaries on the west side of town.”

Janet Donoghue, a speech communication doctoral student from Fairhope Ala., lives in the 500 block of Springer Street. She said her house was broken into Sept. 2 when she was at the Du Quoin State Fair. When she returned around 6 p.m. she found her door was open.

“They broke the glass [window] in the door to unlock the door,” she said.

Donoghue said her laptop with all her doctoral research was taken as well as her jewelry box amongst other things. She said she estimated between $4,000 and $5,000 of things were stolen.

Police told her several students had recently been burglarized.

“The cop had told me there had been a rash of them and they were targeting students,” Donoghue said. “They had already had some towards campus more on my street.”

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Although there have been more than one burglary in the area, Echols said there is nothing to connect them yet.

“I don’t have anything that would directly link those burglaries to each other than the geographical area, which is a good clue sometimes,” Echols said.

Police at Donoghue’s house noticed a pillowcase was missing and it appeared to be a similarity between the cases.

“They noticed one of the pillowcases was gone, and that seemed to be an indicator that it was the same people,” she said.

Echols said because the man in Schnuck’s used a pillowcase and carried so many coins that they wanted to interview him.

“That’s something that is consistent with a few of our burglaries so that’s why we need to talk to him,” Echols said, speaking about the pillowcase. “Is it possible that somebody just decided to cash in their piggy bank and decided to carry it down in a pillowcase? Well it’s possible, although not too probable.”

Daily Egyptian writer Danny Wenger can be reached at 536-3311 ext 258 or [email protected]

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