Philadelphia

Tip Leads Police to Arrest Rock-Wielding Bandit Who Burglarized Northeast Philly Shops

Police have arrested a brazen burglar who is accused of using rocks to smash his way into several Northeast Philadelphia businesses over the span of about a week.

Police said on Monday that 45-year-old Steven Glemser, of Harrow Road in Northeast Philly's Modena Park neighborhood, is facing burglary charges for breaking into seven businesses between Nov. 21 and Nov. 29.

A tip based on surveillance video released to the media last week led police to identify Glemser as the suspect, police told NBC10. Police said that 24th District officers spotted Glemser near Kensington Avenue and Somerset Street on Saturday morning and arrested him on an outstanding warrant for the burglaries.

Surveillance video from one of the burglaries shows the suspect now identified as Glemser throwing a heavy object -- which police said they believe may be a rock or brick -- through the glass door of Little Caesar's Pizza on Red Lion Road near Academy, in Modena Park. Police said once inside, the man took an unknown amount of cash.

A few days later, police say Glemser struck again, this time overnight Nov. 24 at the Suburban Pharmacy, on Bustleton Avenue near Kelvin. In that incident, police said the man used a brick to smash through the glass front door and steal lottery tickets.

Three days after that, police said the suspect smashed through the glass at Beijing Restaurant, located on the same block as the Little Caesar's he hit a few days before. Over the next two days -- Nov. 28 through Nov. 29 -- police said the suspect, using the same method, burglarized a BP gas station on Frankford Avenue near Knights Road, in Morrell Park, and then broke into the Craft Beer Outlet, a dry cleaner and a Super Cuts on the same block.

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Philadelphia Police
Police are searching for a brick- and rock-wielding burglar who hit seven Northeast Philadelphia businesses in about a week.
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