Surveillance images released in multiple unsolved commercial burglary, robbery cases

BALTIMORE (WBFF) — Baltimore Police released an image of the suspect who they say is wanted for burglarizing Lexington Market back on July 27.

It’s one of more than a dozen commercial burglary and robbery cases recently posted alongside a reward, as BPD seeks to identify the various suspects caught on surveillance and make arrests.

Sergeant Betsy Smith, Spokesperson for the National Police Association weighed in on these businesses being targeted in the City.

“When you’re talking about something like commercial burglaries you’ll have one of two things,” said Sgt. Smith. “Either this will be a crime of opportunity where initially a person or a group of people will decide to burglarize a business. They’ll have success. In other words, they won’t be caught and they’ll do more and more. Or, you may have a group of people either from the area or sometimes from outside the area that will decide that they are going to burglarize various businesses. So they will start to do, of course, what we call casing them. They will start to go into those businesses and look for cameras and alarm systems and things like that.”

Small business Hazlo International Foods on East Lombard Street also fell victim to a recent burglary.

Other businesses, including Prime Pizza on York Road recently fell victim to armed robberies.

Investigators posted surveillance images of the suspects pointing a gun directly at a worker.

The crimes are not only endangering lives but causing a financial hit as businesses are often left with items stolen and/or property damaged.

Sergeant Smith said cases like these can be difficult to keep up with due to police staffing and other crimes.

“You don’t always have officers available to respond even when there is a burglary alarm or when somebody calls 911 and says, I think the Dollar General or the 7-Eleven is being burglarized,” said Smith. “So part of having a fully staffed police department is that prevention angle and immediate response angle of commercial burglaries and that’s something right now in the Baltimore area that’s missing.”

The latest statistics posted to the Baltimore Police Department’s website indicate commercial burglaries and robberies are down across the City compared to this time last year.