By Vicky Wedig
Staff Writer
A preliminary hearing was scheduled for Feb. 10 for an Illinois man charged with stealing money from a co-worker’s vehicle and breaking into a manager’s office.
Ryan P. Hinklin, 35, of South Beloit, Ill., was charged Sept. 30 in Walworth County Circuit Court with burglary of a room, possession of burglarious tools, misdemeanor theft and criminal damage to property.
According to the criminal complaint, surveillance videos at MaxPax LLC captured footage of Hinklin, an employee of the Walworth company, entering a co-worker’s vehicle in the parking lot and breaking into the office of operations manager Michael Lynch on Aug. 25.
Hinklin told police he found the keys of the vehicle on the floor near the front door of PaxMax and used the key fob to enter the vehicle to find out who it belonged to, according to the complaint.
Video showed Hinklin take a purse from the vehicle, sit down at a picnic table and go through the purse for about five minutes. The owner of the vehicle reported $300 missing from her purse.
Lynch found pry marks on his office door and the tools that were used to pry it open, according to the complaint. Nothing appeared to be missing from Lynch’s office, but about $200 in damage was done to the door.
