Friday, January 23, 2015

Retired Chicago Police Sgt. Tony DeLeonardis helps take down master safecracker Michael Paulson one last time


Tony DeLeonardis was about three years into his retirement when the former Chicago police officer smelled a familiar rat.

He had arrested mobsters, drug smugglers, rapists and serial killers during his 38-year career before retiring in 2008 as a sergeant in command of major-case squad detectives.

But, DeLeonardis said, there was only one criminal like Michael Paulson. A master safecracker whose career also spanned four decades, Paulson pried, drilled and sawed his way across Chicago and the collar counties with unmatched expertise.

DeLeonardis helped send the prolific thief to prison twice previously and even kept his photograph tacked to the wall of a former office. Beneath it a caption read, "Safe burglar extraordinaire."

Their paths hadn't crossed in years, but it was Paulson who DeLeonardis thought of when he read an August 2011 Tribune article about a Barrington sandwich shop burglary.

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