A woman caught on camera prying open mailboxes in a Wicker Par apartment block had already been released on parole for the same type of crime, a judge said, and had just completed a prison sentence for a string of burglaries, including stealing Christmas presents from under a victim’s tree.
Adelaide Cornell, 46, was arrested Feb. 26 after officers monitoring a Chicago Police Department surveillance camera saw her using a screwdriver to enter the entrance to a multi-unit residential building in the 1300 block of North Ashland Avenue, prosecutors said. She then proceeded to pry open mailboxes in the building’s vestibule, according to the charges.
Officers responded to the scene and intercepted Cornell as she sat nearby in her Buick Encore. Prosecutors said they found a screwdriver next to the driver’s seat, and a search of her car turned up multiple screwdrivers and sixteen sets of keys.
Cornell was charged with burglary and possession of burglary tools. During a detention hearing, Judge James Costello ordered her held, saying she had been in pre-trial detention for barely a month for an “identical crime.” The judge also noted that she had recently completed her parole and had had “a lot of incarcerations.”
Her history includes a burglary she committed and went to prison for under the name Adelaide Tamayo. In 2024, she pleaded guilty to a string of home burglaries stretching from Bucktown to Lakeview, as well as a charge of telephone harassment after she threatened a victim who posted surveillance footage of her on social media.
These crimes began on December 4, 2022, when Tamayo entered the vestibule of an apartment building in the 800 block of West Armitage and forcibly removed a Ring doorbell camera.
A week later, Tamayo and an accomplice allegedly broke into a residential building in the 1900 block of North Milwaukee, stole packages from a hallway and forced their way into storage areas to take more property as security cameras recorded them. Later that same day, surveillance video captured the pair stealing packages from the vestibule and storage area of a building in the 3200 block of North Sheffield. One of those cameras captured an image of their getaway car, which bore a license plate registered to Tamayo, prosecutors said.
On December 17, 2022, Tamayo and an accomplice allegedly entered an apartment building in the 2700 block of North Pine Grove to steal more packages.
A few days after that, a Lakeview man opened his bedroom door in the 2900 block of North Mildred to find Tamayo and an accomplice with Christmas presents that had been under his tree, prosecutors alleged. He confronted the pair as they tried to leave and knocked the parcels out of their hands before they fled.
On New Year’s Day 2023, Tamayo and an accomplice reportedly knocked on the door of an apartment in the 3300 block of North Ashland and asked to speak to someone named “Jason.” When the resident said they didn’t know anyone by that name, the two went to the building’s garage, broke into a car and took a bag, officials said. A camera also recorded the burglary.
The harassment charge stemmed from threatening messages Tamayo sent to a victim who posted surveillance images of her online. In one message, prosecutors said Tamayo wrote: “I’m going to get you b****.”
In another she wrote: “The police aren’t going to do any bullshit. It’s fair.” Tamayo admitted to sending the messages, prosecutors said.
On December 5, 2024, Tamayo pleaded guilty before Judge Paul Pavlus to six counts of burglary and one count of telephone harassment. He sentenced her to four years for the burglaries and three years for the harassment charge, with the terms to run concurrently.
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