A 14-year-old boy was arrested and charged in connection to 15 robberies near Drexel University in Philadelphia in August and September.
During an incident on Sept. 29, a woman and another victim had just gotten into her car around 11:15 p.m on the 3900 block of Baring Street. The woman told police she tried several times to close her car door but believed it was stuck. She then heard the other victim repeatedly yell, “Mom,” police said. The woman told investigators she then looked up and saw the teen boy holding a gun.
The boy then allegedly told her, “Get out of the car you f****** b****,” several times. The woman and second victim then fled into a nearby home while the boy entered their car, police said. After a few moments, the teen exited the car and fled in another direction.
While the boy didn’t take anything during that incident, during other robberies the teen stole cellphones, cash, credit cards, house keys, and medication, police said. He also allegedly pistol whipped a victim during an incident on Sept. 18 on the 500 block of North 34th Street and punched a woman twice in the face during an incident on Sept. 30 on the 400 block of N. Preston Street.
On Sept. 30, detectives interviewed the victim of a robbery on the 400 block of N. Preston Street. Investigators told the woman, who is a student at Drexel, to log into her Discover Credit Card account to cancel her stolen card. While she was logging in the woman received an email stating that a suspicious transaction occurred at a business on the 700 block of N. 38th street around 7:24 a.m. that day, police said.
An investigator went to the business and recovered surveillance video of the teen suspect using the woman’s credit card at the ATM machine inside the store, according to police. Investigators then retrieved still images of the suspect.
On Friday police officers spotted the suspect riding a purple bicycle on 37th Street and Fairmount Avenue, investigators said. The officers noticed the teen looked like the suspect in the surveillance video and that he was riding a purple bicycle that was described in some of the previous robberies. The teen was taken in for questioning and officials obtained a search warrant for his home.
As they searched they found clothing he wore in previous robberies as well as other bicycles he used, police said.
The teen was arrested and charged with 15 counts of robbery and other related offenses. Police believe he used a BB gun during the robberies.
The robberies occurred at the following times at the following locations:
- Sept. 30, 400 block of N. Preston Street
- Sept. 29, 3900 block of Baring Street
- Sept. 27, 400 block of N. 41st Street
- Sept. 21, Preston Street and Powelton Avenue
- Sept. 21, 4400 block of Sansom Street
- Sept. 18, 32nd Street and Haverford Avenue
- Sept. 18, 3100 block of Hamilton Street
- Sept. 18, 500 block of N. 34th Street
- Sept. 18, 600 block of N. 34th Street
- Sept. 17, 600 block of N. 32nd Street
- Sept. 10, 4000 block of Baring Street
- Sept. 5, 4000 block of Spring Garden Street
- Sept. 5, 34th Street and Mantua Avenue
- Sept. 5, 3500 block of Hamilton Street
- Aug. 30, 400 block of N. 35th Street
