RACINE – A 17-year-old boy faces five felony charges for his alleged involvement in a string of pizza delivery driver robberies over the summer.
The Racine County District Attorney’s office charged Bryant M. Patrick, 17, of Racine, with four felony counts of armed robbery and one felony count of attempted armed robbery, all as a party to the crime.
The robberies targeted pizza delivery drivers over a six-week period from August into September, according to the criminal complaint.
Racine Police Department officers arrested Patrick on Thursday after an investigation.
According to the criminal complaint in the case, Patrick admitted involvement in some of the robberies, but denied involvement with other robberies.
Patrick was held in the Racine County Jail on a $10,000 cash bond.
According to the criminal complaint:
On Aug. 5
Racine Police investigated the armed robbery of a Domino’s Pizza delivery driver who had attempted to deliver to an address on the 1500 block of Thurston Ave.
The driver told police that, when he learned the address did not exist, he called the customer while standing outside. “Two thin black males wearing all black clothing and bandanas covering their faces” then approached him, the complaint states.
One of the men, while holding a handgun, made the driver raise his hands, while the other man removed $20 and a small flashlight from the driver’s front pants pockets.
The person who had ordered the pizza later told police that he had typed in the wrong address, and when he stepped outside to find the delivery driver, he saw “two thin males wearing baggy black hooded sweatshirts and black sweatpants sprinting onto the front porch and into” Patrick’s home on the 1400 block of Thurston Avenue.
When officers later went to that address, they spoke with Patrick “who stated he had been home all day and denied knowing anything about the robbery.”
In a surveillance video from a nearby home, police investigators observed two men approach the driver, point a gun and search the driver’s pockets.”
On Sept. 10
Racine Police investigated the armed robbery of a Domino’s Pizza delivery driver near 15th Street and Flett Avenue.
The driver told police that he was having difficulty finding the address. Two men approached the driver from behind his car when he stopped to call the person who had placed the order. One of the men pointed a gun at his face and demanded money. The driver gave the man about $50 in cash. Both suspects fled on foot westbound on 15th Street.
On Sept. 14
Racine Police investigated the armed robbery of a Marco’s Pizza delivery driver near 15th Street and Flett Avenue.
The driver told police that he got out of his vehicle because he was having difficulty finding the address. As he walked to check the number on the house, the driver “stated that he heard someone ‘coming up on him,’ and when he turned around, he observed two Black males wearing black hoodies and black ski masks.”
One of the men displayed a handgun. The driver gave them $35 cash, $75 worth of pizza and his cellphone. According to the criminal complaint, the caller in the incident gave Marco’s the same 15th Street address given for the Sept. 10 robbery at Domino’s. The customer placed both orders from the same ISP address.
Law enforcement later determined the guardian of Patrick at his residence on Thurston Avenue held the ISP address used to place the pizza orders in the Sept. 10 and Sept. 14 robberies.
On Sept. 16
Racine Police investigated an attempted armed robbery of a Pizza Hut delivery driver in the 1400 block of Flett Avenue.
Two Black men confronted the driver as he knocked on a door trying to find the address, the driver told police. One of the men put a handgun to the driver’s head and demanded money. The driver told the men that he did not carry cash. The men patted him down and fled on foot westbound in an alley between 15th Street and Washington Avenue.
The driver described both of the men as wearing black hooded sweatshirts, dark pants and black face masks.
Suspicious order
On Sept. 22, Pizza Hut on Washington Avenue contacted Racine Police about a suspicious order to the 1400 block of Flett Avenue.
An employee told police that the callback telephone number for the order was the same number associated with the Sept. 14 and Sept. 16 armed robberies.
Racine Police conducted a search warrant at Patrick’s residence on Thurston Avenue on Sept. 24. Investigators found clothing items “consistent with those worn in the multiple armed robberies, a black cash bag with Marco’s Pizza printed on it, a facsimile firearm that appeared to look like a Glock semi-automatic firearm.”
Patrick will next appear in court for a preliminary hearing on Oct. 8 at the Racine County Law Enforcement Center, according to online court records.
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