ST. THOMAS — A man wanted in Florida on several burglary charges was detained on Saturday by security employees at the Petrus Plaza after he was seen on the establishment’s security cameras shoplifting, V.I.P.D. Public Information Officer in the St. Thomas-St. John District, Karl Caesar, has announced.
The 911 emergency call center dispatched units from the Richard N. Callwood Command at 9:45 p.m. to the plaza — located across from the Seaborne Airlines terminal — to investigate. Upon their arrival, Phillip Bradly Allen, 36 (seen above) of Florida was found detained by the Petrus Plaza security personnel.
The owner of the establishment, former gubernatorial candidate in the 2018 Democratic Primary Election, Allison Petrus, told officers that Mr. Allen tried to escape after being caught on camera shoplifting and was detained by store security. Officers proceeded to detain Mr. Allen pending further investigation into the shoplifting incident.
In a preliminary investigation, officers observed several identification and credit cards belonging to numerous individuals on the floor of the business. When questioned who the items belonged to, Mr. Petrus told officers that they fell out of Mr. Allen’s backpack as security tried to restrain him.
Officers learned that Mr. Allen possessed a driver’s license from the state of Florida. The V.I.P.D. then made contact with Florida law enforcement officials via the National Crime Information Center (NCIC), who relayed to the V.I.P.D. that Mr. Allen was wanted in Florida on several burglary charges, according to Mr. Caesar. The Miami Dade Police Department confirmed with the V.I.P.D. that it wanted to pursue charges against Mr. Allen.
Mr. Allen was eventually remanded to the Bureau of Corrections pending his advisement hearing.
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