Suspect Goes For Beer At Last Stop, Clerks Say

COLUMBUS, Ohio —Police say they’ve caught a burglary suspect responsible for a string of burglaries Wednesday night.

John Fadley says he was walking along the 2800 block of North High Street around 3 a.m. Thursday when something caught his attention.

What he heard was someone breaking into Denise’s Homemade Ice Cream. 

“Was coming here, and I heard something smash. So you kind of peek around the corner, and I seen some guy going in,“ Fadley said.

Fadley says he called the police and gave them a description of the suspect’s car.

Fadley didn’t know, though, the ice-cream shop wasn’t the only business targeted.

Columbus police say the suspect began hitting several Hilliard-area businesses at about 11:30 p.m. Wednesday.

One of them was Banyan Tree Rehabilitation at 5514 Nike Dr. The front door now is covered with plywood. 

“The top of the door was smashed in. Glass was all over the floor, and maybe like three or four cops outside,” employee Sara Clipson says.

The burglar didn’t make off with anything from there or next door at Professional Pediatric, Inc. at 5510 Nike Dr.

Authorities say he kept going, though.

Police say he also broke into Karaoke Jukebox at 4401 Lyman Dr. before making his way to Upper Arlington where he pried the door open at Cats Only Animal Clinic at 3416 Riverside Dr. and made off with a small amount of cash.

It was from there he went on to allegedly burglarize businesses such as Denise’s where he stole a couple hundred dollars.

In all, police believe the suspect hit around 10 businesses.

The last of which was at the Sunoco gas station near the intersection of Ackerman and Olentangy River roads.

The suspect didn’t go for the money, though. Clerks say he stole an 18-pack of beer.

His spree ended minutes later after police saw a car matching a witness description and pulled it over at the Marathon gas station at the intersection of Olentangy River Road and West 5th Avenue and arrested the suspect.

Officials have not released his name currently, but tell NBC 4 they believe he was just driving around burglarizing at random, mostly for money.

“I’m glad they caught him because it’s so stupid,“ Clipson says.

Police say they found multiple items in the suspect’s vehicle that likely were stolen from the burglarized locations such as cash and beer. 

Officers also found some tools that could have been used to burglarize the businesses.

The suspect was arrested, and authorities continued to investigate the rash of overnight burglaries.

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