Crime Update: Most Crime Down, Office Burglaries Continue

Surveillance video capture from a White Flint office, via Montgomery County PolicePolice thought they stopped a spike in office burglaries when they arrested a D.C. man who officers allege stole laptops and cash by following after-hours cleaning crews and prying open doors with a flathead screwdriver.

But office burglaries continue in the Bethesda area, according to 2nd District Police Commander Capt. David Falcinelli. On Monday, he told a local citizens advisory board officers suspect the man they arrested in May, 29-year-old Andre Antonio Henry, had somebody else working with him.

Henry allegedly broke into 12 offices in White Flint and downtown Bethesda, according to a police press release following his arrest in Prince George’s County. That played a role in the 46 reported commercial office burglaries through April in the 2nd Police District, up 28 from the same period of time last year.

Falcinelli said most every other major crime category is down in the 2nd District compared to the same period of time last year, including robbery (down 20 percent), aggravated assault (down 20 percent), residential burglaries (down 23 percent) and stolen vehicles. Thefts from vehicles is up by about one percent, Faclinelli said.

Falcinelli also reported that officers hope to do a pedestrian safety sting in July in Friendship Heights. In a sting in May on Democracy Boulevard near Walter Johnson High School, police issued 56 citations to drivers who failed to stop for a plainclothes officers crossing a crosswalk.

Police also took a more unconventional method in dealing with a 16-year-old Walter Johnson student who Faclinelli said was part of a group of kids who went on a crime spree involving thefts from cars, robberies and burglaries. The kid’s father, a Kenyan diplomat, had his immunity revoked and he returned to Kenya after Montgomery County Police contacted the U.S. State Department.

Falcinelli said the 16-year-old stole somebody’s iPhone the day before he left the country.

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