• Editor’s Note: The featured image with this post is a stock photo illustration, not the actual photos recovered by police.

A good citizen’s report of suspicious activity: commendable. Two charged for motor-vehicle burglary: professional. Owner of $3,000 camera found: delightful. A child’s first-birthday photos saved …

Priceless.

Pointing out that good things happen when residents report suspicious activity to 911, Aurora police have secured felony charges filed against two men allegedly in possession of items stolen from vehicles on the Near West Side.

Diego E. Jimenez, 19, of the 300 block of Michigan Avenue, and Javier Ucles Jr., 18, of the 500 block of Florida Avenue, both in Aurora, each face three counts of motor vehicle burglary in connection with incidents in the early morning hours of Sept. 27. They were arrested around 2:20 a.m., after police responded to a suspicious activity call in the area of Florida and Hammond Avenues.

Police came across Jimenez and Ucles at Florida and Highland. They were in possession of a car stereo and a purse that contained small amounts of cash and other items.

Upon investigation, officers were able to trace the items back to a vehicle parked in a driveway in the 400 block of Florida. As the investigation progressed, police discovered other articles in a yard near where Ucles lives and theorized other vehicles in the area had been burglarized.

Among the items recovered were a camera and photography equipment worth about $3,000.

While trying to identify the rightful owner of the camera, detectives saw that it contained pictures of a very young boy at a birthday party. Knowing the photos would be priceless to the camera’s owner, investigators drove up and down streets in the area looking for a house which was also in one of the pictures. They were able to identify it in the 300 block of California by a unique light fixture on the front lawn where the owner of the camera lives. It turns out the photos were of the boy’s first birthday party.

Police also traced some items back to a vehicle that had been burgled in the 1000 block of Iowa Avenue.

SOURCE: Aurora Police Department press release