A neighbor, Zack, who lives in the Belgium Apartments near 44th and Chestnut Streets, reported a break-in incident at his home Wednesday night and wanted to alert other neighbors to always lock their windows. The intruder, a male in his late 30’s to mid 40’s, broke into Zack’s first floor apartment through an open bedroom window. The incident happened around 11:35 p.m. and he called the police who responded within two minutes.
Zack says that he was watching a movie in the living room when the intruder broke into his apartment. When he noticed the man he locked the front door and told him to empty his pockets and asked him why he was in his house. While Zack was talking to a 911 operator, the man got away through the window he came in through. Zack says that he was also grabbing his machete when the intruder, who was armed with a razor blade, got away.
Luckily nothing was stolen; the intruder just made a mess, Zack said.
“My bedroom window is in an alleyway, and it was open, but he tore the screen off to get in. I’m always so adamant about my windows being locked and it was very weird and eye-opening for this to happen while I was relaxing at home.”
The intruder is described as an African American male, about 5’7″ or 5’8″, about 140/150 pounds, with a partial black eye around the outside of his left eye.
August 29th, 2013 at 4:50 pm
I used to live in the Belgium apartments in 2006, the apartment on the right hand side if you’re facing from the street. We has several break in’s while there, once through the unlocked (oops) living room window (the man crawled through from the porch and took a bunch of stuff, then left through the front door taking my keys and locking us in), again through the front door (they smashed our glass door) and again an attempted one through the (locked) window on the porch, while inside the apartment. We broke our lease and moved, the landlord was useless and blamed the events on US. Hope he has better luck there then we did!
August 29th, 2013 at 5:35 pm
Wonder if this is related to the arrest last night at Melville and Locust? A man was arrested at about 1:30 AM, similar description…
August 29th, 2013 at 6:39 pm
I lived in west philadelphia for over 3 years, and I loved the culture, accessibility, and general community vibe…it’s a shame that the area is seeing more break-ins and violence as of late 🙁
August 29th, 2013 at 7:20 pm
There is a very good chance that this is a “one-man crime wave”.
August 30th, 2013 at 9:23 am
Yep. A machete beats a razor blade!
September 3rd, 2013 at 4:17 pm
Hopefully Zack gave him that “black-eye”! Once someone illegallu crosses my thresh-hold, they will NOT come out alive.
September 17th, 2013 at 4:28 pm
Haha. 140 pounds. That is hilarious.