Sounds like the best thing you can try in the suburbs is to get the Condo to put up tons of bright lights, cameras and signs. I remember friends having that problem in the crappy side of Oak Forest and the bright lights helped. Cops never helped, all they did was help file reports for missing lug nuts.
The rat poison idea sounds good for the dogs, locking lug nuts for your car sound even better.
How strict are the guns laws in cook county (outside of Chicago) anyway?