Thousands of dollars worth of items stolen from cars in Lemont have been returned to their owners but a suspect is not yet in custody.

Between Oct. 9 and 10, Lemont police received nine reports of car burglaries in the Steeples subdivision, located off of Archer Avenue and McCarthy Road.

Items taken included a set of golf clubs, laptops, global positioning system units and loose change among other items, said Lemont police officer Thad Mezyk.

Many of the burglarized cars were unlocked. However, two of the cars had their windows smashed to gain entry.

“We could cut theft by 75 percent if people would lock their car doors,” said Lemont Police Chief Kevin Shaughnessy.

In the course of their investigation, Lemont police, with the help of the subdivision’s neighborhood watch program, were able to narrow down a set of people they thought were involved in the thefts.

But before they could make an arrest, a man came into the police station Oct. 16 with the items from the car burglaries, telling police he was told by the person who stole the items to return them.

After further questioning, police were able to get more information, including the name of the perpetrator.

“It’s kind of a weird situation,” Mezyk said. “We don’t have that too often where we’ve just about narrowed it down to a few people and then the next thing you know the stuff gets turned in.”

Police were able to recover almost all the items, with the exception of the stolen loose change.

“We’re still actively pursing the arrest of this subject,” Mezyk said. “But we don’t have the offender with the items because the source turned it in.”

He said it will be up to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office whether charges will be approved.

Because of the monetary amount of the items stolen, the offender could face felony charges, according to police.

Shaughnessy lauds the help of the neighborhood watch crime prevention effort.

“We want to stress how important it is for citizens to be our eyes and ears and let police know anything, no matter how insignificant it may seem,” he said.

Their effort helped get the items returned, he added.

“Very rarely will you recover proceeds from car burglaries,” he said.