Jicheng “Kevin” Liu in his Cook County booking mug banker who lost his job and went on a neighborhood crime spree — pilfering strollers and golf clubs from garages and more than 500 packages from front porches — was sentenced to eight years in prison on Tuesday.
Jicheng “Kevin” Liu, 34, of Lincoln Park, will be deported to China after he serves his time behind bars. He’s been in the United States illegally for at least 10 years.
Indicted on a dozen burglary charges in 2012, Liu pleaded guilty in August to one count of residential burglary. Appearing before a Cook County judge on Tuesday, a meek Liu wept as he apologized for his crimes, a far cry from the mean-spirited thief who terrorized the North Side with thievery and harassment.
Three years ago, Liu was a one-man neighborhood menace. He lived in the 1700 block of West Altgeld Street, and his neighbors were his prey.
After his arrest, Chicago Police said the burglary rate in the district dropped by 70 percent, according to CBS Chicago. Liu was a suspect in thousands of burglaries. In March 2012, police raided his home and discovered a veritable flea market of neighborhood loot — hundreds of bikes and strollers, 100 sets of golf clubs, family photos, a stolen car — totaling more than $1 million in value.
The stolen items were piled floor to ceiling throughout his house and in five storage lockers he rented.
“It was like being in an episode of ‘Hoarders,’ only all of the stuff was stolen,” one investigator told the Chicago Tribune at the time.
Police also found more than 70 garage door openers labeled with his neighbors’ addresses.
Liu had been going on Internet to sell his pilfered goods.
In one case, a Roscoe Village woman saw a stroller in an online ad that resembled the model stolen from her. She contacted Liu to purchase the stroller — and after doing so discovered her children’s artwork in one of the pockets, according to Cook County prosecutors.
Liu’s havoc wasn’t limited to thievery. The fired banker also went online to harass everyone from his former bosses to the people he’d robbed.
After her dealings with Liu, the stroller woman and her husband would be awakened in the middle of the night by men ringing their doorbell looking for sex. Turns out, Liu posted ads online that touted her services as a prostitute.
Liu also would go onto websites and post scurrilous reviews.
He accused a real estate agent of sexually assaulting someone during an open house and cheating a woman out of her house. He attacked a couple’s eBay business with false reviews, eventually drying up their business.
Liu even posted slanderous comments online about the police officers who arrested him, accusing one of molesting several children.
Liu’s crimes and lies began to unravel in 2011, when a Lincoln Park resident spotted Liu swiping a package from his porch. He also spotted Liu casing the neighborhood and called police, who found him hiding under a porch.
Liu managed to beat that trespassing charge and then launched a series of harassing online attacks on the resident who identified him.
That person investigated those online posts, eventually tying them to Liu. He also found half a dozen others who were subjected to Liu’s vindictive online attacks.