Ring camera footage captured the man in a mask and gloves, per reports
Police recently canvassed a neighborhood of Blue Bell late last week after a female resident of the first block of Yorktown Court called to report a man walking back and forth at the back of her home, attempting to enter it.
Whitpain Township Police Department were dispatched on Thursday, July 25 at 10:28 p.m., responding to a caller who reported seeing an unknown man trying to gain access to her home via the back door, according to reports. Upon arrival, the police said they searched the area of the home for a man described as wearing a sweatshirt, black pants, and a mask, reports stated.
Edward W. Barnes, 58, of the 2100 block of Medary Avenue in Philadelphia, was later identified as the alleged culprit, police reported, after a search through multiple yards in the area resulted in his arrest. Many calls, according to police, came through Montgomery County Dispatch, updating the searching units on the different sightings of Barnes.
Police reported that they checked in with dispatch and many area homeowners while searching, until observing a black male hiding in the bushes of a home on Coventry Court. The man was wearing a black sweatshirt and black pants, police said. The sweatshirt Barnes was wearing had “distinctive white writing on the front,” reports stated, which was also the same writing captured on homeowners’ various cameras’ footage later obtained by police.
Police detained Barnes until Ring camera footage from the initial caller’s home was confirmed to show him pulling on gloves prior to attempting access to the home, police said. Reports state that motion lights reflected the writing, making it clearly visible on camera footage.
Barnes is charged with felony burglary, possessing instruments of crime, and loitering and prowling at nighttime. He was arraigned on July 26, where a monetary bail of $25,077 was set. Barnes is set to have a preliminary hearing on Aug. 8 before Magisterial District Judge Suzan Leonard.
All suspects and defendants are innocent until proven guilty. This story was compiled using public court records.
