LOWER MERION, PA — A man involved in heists that yielded nearly $800,000 worth of jewelry from several Main Line homes had searched Google to see whether gloves conceal fingerprints, according to court records.
Jabir Parker is accused of breaking into three Main Line homes in the span of a month, leaving two Lower Merion houses with expensive jewelry.
In the last incident, he's facing charges for an attempted burglary in Tredyffrin that mirrors the time and circumstances of a home invasion this summer at Philadelphia Eagles star Saquon Barkley's estate. But authorities did not mention any victims by name when announcing Parker's arrest on Wednesday.
Parker, 24, of, Philadelphia, is charged with multiple felonies, including burglary, conspiracy to commit burglary, criminal trespass, theft and related offenses. He was arrested Tuesday.
Investigators believe other suspects are involved, including one who drove a getaway vehicle. Each break-in involved forced entry, according to the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office.
Authorities say the suspects stole jewelry from a house in Bryn Mawr on June 22 and a home in Wynnewood on July 5. Both neighborhoods are in Lower Merion Township.
They broke into a house in Tredyffrin's Malvern section on July 18 but fled when the homeowner saw them, authorities said.
Surveillance footage and footprints left at multiple homes helped police in Lower Merion and Tredyffrin link all three incidents, the affidavit says. They later obtained T-Mobile and AT&T records showing one device in the area of all the burglaries during the relevant times: an iPhone registered to Parker.
On Aug. 25, Google turned over records associated with Parker's Gmail account.
Less than an hour after the first burglary, Parker made several Google searches involving jewelry, including "how much is 1.5 carat diamond" and "rolex day-date gold presidential price," the affidavit says.
A few days later, Parker searched "do touchscreen gloves leave fingerprints" and "do all gloves stop fingerprints," according to the affidavit.
He searched for rental cars on July 10, days before renting a GMC Yukon linked to the break-in at Barkley's home a week later. The vehicle was returned about 90 minutes after, authorities said.
Parker remains jailed after failing to post bail, set at $1 million. He is set to return to court Sept. 10 for a preliminary hearing.
An attorney contact for Parker wasn't immediately available in online court records.
Anyone with information about these incidents or the suspect(s) can call Lower Merion Police at 610-649-1000 and ask for detectives.
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