Man connected to 40 business burglaries in Austin

A man is arrested in connection with forty business burglaries in a one-month period around Austin.

Austin Police say they were all linked by how the suspect broke in. Instead of just breaking a window, the suspect would carefully remove it.

40 business burglaries in one month, all allegedly committed by the same person.

"This pane had been removed and was leaning against this window right here," says Stephen Stuesser, Bravo Capital LLC, president.

Bravo Capital was targeted on the night of April 16, 2014. That next morning owner Stephen Stuesser was taken by surprise.

"It looked like somebody had come in and rummaged through. There is an alarm here. I think that probably startled him, gave him a shorter amount of time and then he took off," says Stuesser.

He considers himself among the lucky ones, saying nothing of great value was taken from his financial company.

"Certainly we were glad that we didn't catch him in the act. Predominately, there's a lot of women that work here. From a safety standpoint, I was concerned about that. I was happy that they were able to apprehend the suspect and that there wasn't more damage or there wasn't more people involved," says Stuesser.

Others businesses were not as fortunate, like Silva Salon, which is down the street.
They had cash stolen as well as a black tablet.
What's unusual about these burglaries is how the suspect came in, he took out large panes of glass.

"When the glass people came here to put it back in, they commented that it had to be somebody that had knowledge about this. That they were able to and had tools to remove the lining and take the glass out without breaking it," says Stuesser.

By doing that, 49-year-old David Keen left fingerprints at fourteen businesses. That made it easier for police to identify him and track him down.

"I was really thankful that they took the time to put together a solid case, a comprehensive case to address this issue and not have it skimmed over in the judicial system. That this guy gets some treatment and gets some real help so it doesnt happen again," says Stuesser.

Interesting enough, Keen was also arrested and suspected of similar burglaries in the summer of 2005 and 2007.

He was also identified and arrested in 2014 for five of the forty burglaries. Other businesses say that is why they are always on the lookout.

"We just get on each other to make sure that we are keeping things kind of under wraps, make sure the doors are locked, outside lights are working. Everybody still gets a little nervous that something is gonna happen. you just do what you can," says the business owner of Upswing.

Keen is being charged with burglary of a building - state jail felony.