Boulder game day break-in suspect arrested years ago for other break-ins
The man now accused of burglarizing at least five residences in Boulder's University Hill neighborhood as people were out for Saturday's Colorado Buffaloes football game has a past in Boulder, including break-ins and indecent exposure.
Patrick Gillespie, 50, whose last known address is in Kansas, is now facing a series of new charges after a Saturday arrest near 11th and College. This time, police say the burglaries were opportunistic.
"In Boulder, we don't have a ton of violent crime thankfully, but when people literally leave a front door wide open, not even closed, people will take that opportunity to victimize," said Boulder Deputy Police Chief Steve Redfearn.
After word of the burglaries spread over the weekend, people were being more vigilant.
"I'd say the norm, especially around the Hill, especially, is a lot of times people will just leave the door open, leave it unlocked," said Will Thompson, a University of Colorado senior who lives in the area. "That guy had no business out here, he should have stuck out like a sore thumb," he added.
Gillespie's long record includes a conviction for a series of break-ins at women's apartments in Boulder in 2005. Police found him living in a van with multiple sets of keys to numerous properties and a map showing where they were. He was sentenced to four years for the crimes along with others including indecent exposure.
He remains on the sex offenders list in Kansas for four total indecent exposure arrests in Colorado in Commerce City, Golden and Boulder between 1999 and 2005.
Police got a call from someone reporting a burglar Saturday morning in the Hill. They say the spotted a man, later identified as Gillespie, as he was putting things in his car. But when police went after him, he ran.
"He popped up again in an alley, the officers tried to chase him down. Same thing, he comes around a corner and he's gone. Turns out we believe he was in yet another person's unit. Even changed clothes, changed his appearance a little bit," said Redfearn.
The town was relatively quiet on game day, so police pulled back uniformed officers and put non-uniformed officers in place to watch Gillespie's car.
"He had walked by the car a couple times, even though he had changed appearance. And our investigators realized, hey that's probably him and did make contact and took him into custody," said Redfearn.
Violet, a University of Colorado senior, had a cowboy hat stolen along with a credit card taken from the home she shares with her roommates. The thief got into their home through an unlocked door, but a camera captured images of him with the cowboy hat on over another hat. It was found next door where Lopes said he tried to get in as well.
"It's just kind of crazy that he's still walking around on the streets being able to do what's he's doing," she said. "Guess they don't lock those people up for very long."
Gillespie is being held on a $30,000 bond facing a series of charges including, five counts of burglary and theft, criminal mischief, possession of burglary tools, obstruction and 12 counts of possession of a financial transaction device.
Boulder police say they would like to hear from anyone else who thinks they may have been burglarized Saturday as well.