A Reading man was arrested early Saturday after police say he burglarized two downtown city businesses — including Marvel Ranch, the diner recently overhauled on Gordon Ramsay’s “Secret Service.”
Officers detained Alberto Gonzalez Jr., 41, just over a block from the restaurant after a passerby spotted him carrying the restaurant’s stolen cash register, according to police.
He is being held in Berks County Jail on $50,000 bail following arraignment Saturday before District Judge Tonya Butler in Reading Central Court.
Gonzalez of the 1100 block of Douglass Street was charged with burglary, theft by unlawful taking and criminal trespassing and criminal mischief in both break-ins. Additionally, he was charged with resisting arrest and possessing methamphetamine.
According to court records:
A dispatcher called in a burglary in progress about 3 a.m. Saturday, saying a man was carrying what appeared to be a TV set as he walked in the first block of North Fourth toward Court Street. The man began running east on Court when he was spotted by police, who detained him.
Police discovered entry was made by hurling a rock through the entrance door. Officers met the owner at the restaurant, which had not yet opened for the day, and found the rock on the floor.
The register had been ripped from electrical cords at the counter, and papers were strewn about.
The only think missing was the register, which was recovered from Gonzalez.
About a half-hour before that break-in, police were called for a burglary that had just occurred at North Fifth and Walnut streets.
Police discovered a window next to the front door had been smashed. They found packs of cigarettes on the floor inside the store, which was not yet open.
Officers found an empty register till on the floor at the checkout counter.
The owner met officers at the store. She said there was only loose change in the register because the store had been burglarized about a week earlier. Information about the earlier break-in wasn’t immediately available.
She believed some cigarettes were stolen in Saturday’s burglary, but didn’t have the exact amount.
Court records indicate Reading police on Saturday charged Gonzalez in a third burglary, but it was unclear what incident that charge was connected to.
The break-in at Marvel Ranch comes a year after Gordon Ramsay and his crew were at the restaurant at Fourth and Penn streets, renovating the business and revamping its menu.
In June, the transformation was featured in an episode of Fox’s Gordon Ramsay’s Secret Service.”