First, it was the visitors.
Up to five different cars a day, often a Mercedes Benz or BMW, would pull into the circular driveway at 6741 N. Central Ave., Lincolnwood, carrying well-dressed couples who entered the brick two-story home for 15-minute visits before leaving as casually as they had arrived.
Then, there were the odd and frequent garage sales.
Unlike the usual offerings of worn-out toys and chipped dishes, yard sales at the Lincolnwood address were more like a department store outlet, where racks of beautiful near-new clothing, furs and unique antiques drew dozens of cars, blocking neighboring driveways and stalling local traffic.
“For a while it was like Grand Central Station over there,” said a 24-year-resident of the block, who wanted to remain anonymous. “There was a lot of traffic. White, well-dressed people would come by there and then leave late at night. And when they had garage sales, you would not believe the things they had. It was very suspicious.”
In fact, police said the high-class garage sales were the showroom of an alleged national burglary ring operating for many years in Illinois, Wisconsin and Georgia.
Suspicions were confirmed by Chicago police Monday when Nikola Konstantnov, 55, and his wife, Luba Pavlov, 57, were charged with two counts of felony theft for receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in stolen property, including some items identified as being taken during the January burglary of the Sauganash home of U.S. Commerce Secretary William Daley, brother of Mayor Richard Daley.
Charges filed Monday stemmed from the couple’s receipt of stolen property in the Halloween night burglary of Moda Elegante, a boutique at 2800 W. Devon Ave., and for receiving merchandise stolen from Marshall Field’s State Street store.
Police said Pavlov has just come off parole after a federal conviction for 23 counts of racketeering. Her husband has a prior conviction for burglary, according to FBI records. The pair had been arrested in various places around the country, Belmont Area Lt. Nick Nickeas said.
The big break was the burglary of the boutique.
“They took everything, clothing, jewelry, perfume, everything,” said Moda Elegante owner Mila Kavene of her store, which was picked clean of all merchandise except window displays.
A burgundy sweater, left in the window, is what sparked the investigation.
When a shopper walked into the shop last week wearing the stolen burgundy suit that went with the sweater, an alert sales clerk notified authorities. The woman, who was a travel agent, told Kavene that she bought the two pieces from some men who had come into her agency, which is located in a north suburb.
“They were selling computers, and when she told them she was not interested, they said that they also had suits and other clothing,” Kavene said.
The woman, whose name Kavene would not reveal, said she went to the home of the men in Lincolnwood where she purchased the two pieces of the suit for $70, according to Kavene, who said the outfit retailed at $189.
Over the weekend, Chicago police executed search warrants at the Lincolnwood home, said police spokesman Kevin Morison.
Gang Crimes Specialists Bill Schober and Kurt Hagemann and Property Crimes Detective Joe Schober obtained a second search warrant on Saturday. The recovered items fill two large evidence rooms on the second floor of the police station at Belmont and Western Avenues. The items included scores of collectible figurines, which cost more than $700 each.
There were also numerous fur coats, expensive suits, linens and many Oriental and Persian rugs that police estimated are valued in the thousands of dollars. Some of the clothing taken has been identified as being stolen from a clothing store in West Allis, Wis., and some of the figurines were taken in a theft in Georgia, Nickeas said. The two suspects will appear Tuesday in bond court, police said.
“It’s very possible that other family members were involved in the theft ring,” Nickeas said. “When officers executed the first search warrant on Friday evening, they found merchandise inside of the house neatly arranged with clothing on clothing-racks and many still with price tags attached.”
Nickeas said members of the ring would approach shoppers at a large shopping center at Touhy and Central Avenues and tell them, “Come with us and we can give you a better deal.”
