Food Court Burglaries: Three Teens Sought In Bethesda Mall Thefts

BETHESDA, MD — While five teenagers have been charged with June burglaries at a Bethesda mall, Montgomery County Police are seeking three more suspects and released their photos on Monday. The youths are believed to have broken into several food court restaurants at Westfield Montgomery Mall on June 21.

About 3:21 a.m. that day, a 9-1-1 call reported that an alarm had been activated at the J. Chow restaurant inside the mall food court. Officers who went to the mall did not locate any suspects. Store managers gave surveillance video to detectives, who were able to obtain descriptions of eight suspects who had entered eateries including Surku Japan Sushi Bar, McDonald’s, Wicked Waffle, and J. Chow.

Two nights later, shortly after 3 a.m., another burglary was reported at the mall by store security officers, who had four suspects in custody. Two of the suspects were identified as participating in the June 21 burglary. Five juveniles were identified and arrested for the first burglary.

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On Monday Montgomery County Police released photographs of the three remaining unidentified suspects described as:

• White male teenager, short hair, glasses, wearing a baseball cap, red Washington Capitals shirt, and shorts;
• White male teenager, short hair, wearing a plaid button-down shirt and shorts;
• Hispanic male teenager, wearing a blue T-shirt with a logo on the left chest area, and shorts.

Anyone with information about the burglary or the identities of the three suspects is asked to call police at 240-773-6710.

The five identified suspects are all juveniles and were each charged with one to three counts of second-degree burglary. Authorities will not release the names and arrest photographs of the five youths charged because of their juvenile status.

Bethesda mall burglary suspect photos courtesy of Montgomery County Police