Attempted Burglary by Pounding a Hole Through a Store Wall

In People v. Davis, 3 Ill. App. 3d 738, 739, 279 N.E.2d 179 (1972), police observed the defendant and two other men pounding a hole through the wall of a television store. The perpetrators then attempted to leave, but were stopped and arrested. Davis, 3 Ill. App. 3d at 739. In setting out our analytical framework for the defendant's burglary conviction, we stressed "it is not the size of the hole made in a building wall that is determinative in proving burglary but whether a hand or instrument was actually inserted into the hole for the purpose of committing the felony." Davis, 3 Ill. App. 3d at 739. The Court vacated the burglary conviction and imposed a conviction for a lesser offense because the evidence showed no insertion of any part of the body, or an instrument for the purpose of committing a felony, through the hole in the store wall by any of the three men. Davis, 3 Ill. App. 3d at 740. In Davis, the court determined that the facts only supported that the defendant committed the inchoate offense of attempted burglary to a commercial building. As the Davis court observed, "Nothing was disturbed or missing from the store." Davis, 3 Ill. App. 3d at 739.