A 31-year-old Fishtown man with a lengthy criminal history was arrested last week after allegedly breaking into the apartment above Bubba’s BBQ restaurant on Girard Avenue, which listed a late September opening online.
According to Philadelphia police spokeswoman Christine O’Brien, police arrested Gary Michael Wilson on Sept. 21 when he was found along the 800 block of Almond Street.
Wilson, of the 2600 block of E. Dauphin Street, was charged with burglary, criminal trespass, criminal mischief and two counts of theft for the Girard Avenue break in, which occurred just days before.
According to police, at around 5 a.m. on Sunday, Sept. 18, Wilson broke into the building at 19–21 W. Girard Avenue, soon to be the home of Bubba’s BBQ, and then continued on to an apartment upstairs.
At that time, a surveillance camera allegedly captured an image of Wilson. The image made the rounds on the Internet last week.
Police officials said Wilson stole several items, including a laptop and an XBOX video game console.
This was not Wilson’s first run in with police.
In fact, Wilson was already serving probation for theft from a motor vehicle — a sentence he received only a few weeks before on Sept. 2.
Wilson’s criminal record stretches back to 1998 and includes a laundry list of arrests for a variety of crimes including drug offenses, assault, robbery, burglary, driving while intoxicated and probation violations.
Reporter Hayden Mitman can be reached at 215–354–3124 or [email protected]
