Police say the same man broke into Ardmore school twice

On March 6, Lower Merion Police arrested a 45-year-old man and charged him with burglary for allegedly breaking into an Ardmore area school on Sunday, March 1, and Monday, March 2.

Patrick Boyden, president of the Regina Angelorum Academy in Ardmore, told police that he saw surveillance footage on his cell phone of the school’s security camera that showed a man breaking into the school around 8:30 p.m. March 2.

He described the man as a “heavy-set, Black male, approximately 40- to 45-years-old, dressed in a tan jacket, blue jeans.” 

The man walked up to the school entrance from the parking lot. He said the man forcefully pulled on the door until he opened it, then entered, according to an affidavit of probable cause. 

The man left the school through the same door at 10 p.m.

When Boyden went to the school to check, he found the door had been forced open, and a magnetic door lock system was ripped away, records showed.

Inside, he saw the secretary’s desk to the left of the entryway had been ransacked, with items scattered across the desk and the floor, police said. 

An envelope with about $600 in cash was missing, according to police.

Boyden also told police that the security camera showed the same man had entered the school on March 1 at 8:30 p.m. and left at 9:16 p.m.

The school principal told Boyden that she thought someone was in the school on March 1 after she arrived at her office and saw several tabs on websites that she had not visited had been opened on her computer. That caused him to check surveillance footage and observe a man entering and leaving the building, police said. 

Officer Paul Archambault circulated a picture of the burglar to the department. Around 8 p.m. on March 6, Officer Jeffry Calabrese saw a man who matched the photo and was subsequently arrested. Arthur Antoine Williams, who has no fixed address, was read his Miranda rights, and Williams spoke to police about what happened, records stated.

Williams allegedly said that he entered the school, on the 100 block of Argyle Road, because he was looking for a place to sleep. Williams also allegedly identified a picture of himself from the video, according to the probable cause. 

Police charged Williams with felony burglary (as no person was present), felony criminal trespass, breaking into a structure, and misdemeanor theft by unlawful taking of movable property, according to a criminal complaint.

District Court Justice Douglas H. Lavenberg set a $5,000 unsecured bail on March 6. A preliminary hearing before District Justice Francis Lawrence Jr. is scheduled for March 17.

Williams is represented by the Montgomery County Public Defenders Office. 

All suspects and defendants are innocent until proven guilty. This story was compiled using public court records.