Five businesses in Southern Village suffered thousands of dollars of damage from a string of burglaries early Thursday morning — and Chapel Hill police have arrested a man in connection with the burglaries.
Chapel Hill resident Caleb Hopkirk-Ridlen Hill was arrested Thursday evening and charged for the attempted burglaries. Three businesses had property stolen. The other two only reported property damage.
“The suspect was taken into custody by officers later that evening around 7:30 pm on the seventh,” said Chapel Hill Police Department spokesman Lt. Kevin Gunter. “This was a situation where he was obviously looking for quick currency.”
Hill was arrested and charged with eight felonies: one felony count of attempted breaking or entering, three felony counts of larceny and four felony counts of breaking and/or entering.
Hill was also charged with five misdemeanor counts of damage to real property.
He was taken to the Orange County Jail and held on $25,000 bond related to these charges.
Hill is charged with breaking into five businesses: Subway, the Lumina Theatre, Town Hall Grill, Tutti Frutti Frozen Yogurt and Village Pediatrics. Each of the businesses suffered at least $500 in damage as a result of Thursday’s incidents.
“Officers first responded around 3:30 in the morning to an alarm call,” Gunter said. “Once they arrived at the scene they found broken windows at the surrounding businesses.”
Village Pediatrics suffered $4,500 in damage and losses — the most of any affected business. Most of this amount, $3,000, was damage to a glass window that was broken. A laptop, valued at $1,500, was also stolen from the business.
Tutti Frutti sustained about $800 in damage, including broken front door glass and a cash register drawer.
At Subway, front door glass valued at $1,000 was broken and $15 in cash was stolen from the register.
