Unlocked car doors gave East St. Louis man easy access to burglarize homes, cops say
An 18-year-old East St. Louis man has been charged in connection with stolen cars in St. Louis.
Zion Dooley of the 200 block of Water Street was charged Thursday by the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office with two counts of first-degree burglary, two counts of stealing a motor vehicle, one count of tampering with a motor vehicle, and one count of stealing credit cards.
Dooley is being held on $100,000 cash-only without 10 percent bond, according to police.
According to St. Louis County police, the first victim reported on Monday at approximately 2:22 a.m. that her 2019 Toyota Highlander had been stolen from inside the attached garage of her home in the 2900 block of Royal Point Drive in St. Louis.
Police say Dooley got into the home through the garage by taking a garage door opener from the victim’s unlocked pickup truck that was parked outside. Inside the Toyota Highlander was a purse containing at least two credit cards.
Several days earlier, a second victim reported that his 2016 BMW had been stolen from the attached garage at his residence in the 3200 block of Country Hollow Drive in St. Louis.
As with the first victim, Dooley was able to take a garage door opener from the unlocked car and enter the house, according to the police.
Both the first and second victim, as well as family members, were present during each of the burglaries, police say.
The third victim reported the theft of her 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee, which had been left unlocked in the driveway of her residence in the 3200 block of Country Hollow Drive in St. Louis, said police.
Dooley was arrested after he attempted to sell the first victim’s Toyota Highlander and another vehicle to police acting undercover.
At the time of Dooley’s arrest, he possessed the stolen credit cards in addition to other items that had been in the first victim’s purse. He confessed to entering the two garages and stealing the vehicles belonging to the first and second victim, according to a release from the court.
Dooley said he had been present when the third victim’s vehicle was stolen, and within 10 minutes of the theft he was driving the vehicle away from the area.
Detectives from the St. Louis County Police Department’s Bureau of Crimes Against Property are leading the investigation.
