Man charged with 17 Philadelphia burglaries

PHILADELPHIA (WTXF) - A man is under arrest for more than a dozen burglaries in different parts of Philadelphia, and also for crimes in two suburban townships.

Philadelphia police say Rami Amer had a pattern: Each time, he "broke the glass door of the business with a hammer." Then, once inside, Amer would quickly remove money from the cash register or safe.

The burglaries in the city took place for just over a month, from Nov. 19 to Dec. 24, 2016. Apparently, it was the Christmas Eve incident that led to Amer's eventual capture.

At 3:49am that day, police in South Philadelphia got a call about a burglary on S. 24th Street, just south of W. Passyunk Avenue. They drove through a shopping center and saw a man pushing a silver Mercedes, with the driver's side door open, out of the Cricket Wireless store parking lot.

The officers went to the store and found the bottom of the glass door broken out. Then, they saw the doors of Fresh Gulf Seafood and Posh Nails & Spa were also broken out, and the cash register was taken.

Later, they found the Mercedes unattended in the parking lot with a cash register, hammer, gloves and pieces of broken glass inside.

Police say they connected Amer, 35, with surveillance video showing him driving a silver Mercedes, and that police in Bensalem and Radnor were both investigating "numerous burglaries involving the same pattern."

Amer, from Mullica Hill, NJ, is charged with 17 counts of burglary, criminal trespass, criminal mischief and related offenses in Philadelphia alone.