Penn Police arrested the lone suspect wanted in connection with a December armed robbery at the Au Bon Pain located inside the Biomedical Research Building yesterday.
Charles Patterson, a 41-year-old male, was arrested on Monday at approximately 12:30 p.m. He was charged with three counts of robbery and related charges, including illegal possession of a firearm for an incident that occurred on Dec. 15.
Patterson was a former employee of the Au Bon Pain in the Biomedical Building, which is located at 421 Curie Blvd. He allegedly held up the eatery at around 2 p.m., taking money from both the cash register and people in the restaurant.
Penn's Deputy Chief of Investigations Bill Danks said that the thief took $2,000 in total.
Despite the fact that his face was covered, restaurant employees identified Patterson. Police obtained a warrant for arrest, then made every effort to find him.
Even though they had an identification, Patterson proved elusive, managing to evade capture for two months.
"We couldn't find him," Danks said. "We went to every place we knew he lived, we did a lot of police stuff, he didn't pop up."
Patterson was finally spotted by police while in a car on 22nd and Ludlow streets.
"He was ... driving someone else's car, using somebody else's ID," Danks said.
"When officers asked him to step out of the automobile, he took off," Danks said. "There was a foot pursuit for several blocks" before he was apprehended.
The first two months of last semester saw a sudden spike in armed robberies, of which students were often the victims. This year, both students and campus locations have been almost entirely free from such incidents.
The exception is an armed robbery of the Rite Aid store at 4237 Walnut St., which occurred on Feb. 4.
Rite Aid's store manager reported that a male armed with a gun held up the store at approximately 1:10 p.m. According to police, he took roughly $600. So far, he has not been apprehended.
