Police investigate string of rooftop burglaries in Northeast Philly

NORTHEAST PHILADELPHIA (WTXF) - Jason Zaki was busy working the grill at his restaurant in Northeast Philly Tuesday night, still steaming over the rooftop burglar who broke into his business last week.

"We want him to be put away. It's not fair what he's doing to everybody," Zaki told FOX 29.

Jason says the agile burglar went to the roof of his Verree Road business and removed the exhaust fan unit that's connected to the kitchen in his restaurant.

"The exhaust was off, the air conditioning is damaged. He tried to get in through air conditioning too," Zaki explained.

"Three of our four air conditioning units were actually moved and messed with. And broken," said Brett Levy over at Benny the Bum's on Bustleton.

He says a rooftop burglar hit three businesses in the shoppes at Red Lion, seriously damaging air conditioning units as he tried to get into this check cashing store, a Metro PCS phone store and Benny's, where repairs could cost $15,000.

"We had to get our repair guy out here. Spend a lot of money and get everything fixed," Levy said

Northeast Detectives would like to talk to this guy who they say is a person of interest in nine rooftop burglaries or attempted burglaries since June. He breaks in the same way each time.

"Go up on the roof. Hit the exhaust unit. Heavily damage it and try to gain entry that way," said Lieutenant Dennis Rosenbaum of Northeast Detectives.

The lieutenant says Bensalem Police reported two similar incidents at this strip mall back in June.

"We're gonna go back, look at their cases, look at ours and see if this might be the same guy," the lieutenant told FOX 29.

"It cost us too much money," Zaki added.

"He's costing a lot of people a lot of money and a lot of aggravation," Levy explained.

Police say the burglar got away with small amounts of money and a computer when he did get inside. They believe he may be from the Bustleton area.