While Buffs fans attended Saturday's game, Kansas man burglarized homes, Boulder police say
As thousands of University of Colorado Buffalo fans supported their team in the streets of Boulder and at Folsom Field on Saturday, several homes were allegedly burglarized.
The suspect, 50-year-old Patrick Sean Gillespie, of Kansas, appeared to be targeting homes in the area of University Hill the morning of Saturday's CU game against Nebraska. The alleged burglaries are thought to have begun as early as 7:30 a.m. Police were first called around 9 a.m. when someone tried breaking into a home on 10th Street when residents were still there.
Officers arrived but the suspect was gone. They searched the neighborhood and eventually arrested Gillespie.
He's been charged with the following crimes:
- 5 counts of burglary;
- criminal mischief;
- possession of burglary tools;
- obstruction;
- 5 counts of theft;
- 12 counts of possession of a financial transaction device.
Boulder police say they think there could be additional victims and urge anyone who thinks their home was burglarized to call them.
And while police have not confirmed they're the same person, court records show a man with the same name and age with a long list of charges and convictions in Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Denver and Jefferson counties, as well as in Kansas, dating back to 1989 from traffic infractions to fraud to indecent exposure. In 2005, he plead guilty to a string of burglaries where police say he had the keys to 20 homes in University Hill and a hand-drawn map of the neighborhood. He was sentenced to 4 years in prison.
