Two men are facing armed robbery and kidnapping charges after allegedly holding up a cellphone store in downtown Newark.
The robbery happened just after 10:30 a.m. Tuesday at the T-Mobile store in Newark Shopping Center.
The men entered the store wearing masks and ordered three employees into a back room at gunpoint, according to court documents. The men made the employees open a safe, and they stole more than $10,000 worth of merchandise, including 18 smartphones, six Apple Watches and four tablets.
They also stole phones and a backpack belonging to the employees.
Police were able to locate the alleged robbers using tracking data from the stolen phones, as well as surveillance footage. Officers stopped the their vehicle in New Castle and arrested both of them.
The men were identified as Kyle Byers, 32, of Wilmington; and Durell Dupree, 40, of New Castle.
Police searched their car and found the stolen electronics as well as clothes that the robbers were seen wearing in surveillance footage, court records indicate.
Byers and Dupree had ditched the employees' belongings along Ogletown Road near CarMax, according to court documents. Police recovered one phone there.
Officers found the rest of the items in Baltimore. The man who had them, who was apparently unconnected to the initial robbery, told police that even though he had seen officers canvassing the area around Ogletown Road trying to find the stolen items, he grabbed the phone and backpack and took them with him to Baltimore.
In an interview with police, Byers denied participating in the robbery, instead claiming that Dupree and another man had asked him for a ride and put the bag of stolen electronics in his car.
“Byers was stopped in a vehicle containing numerous pieces of property stolen in an armed robbery less than an hour before. He denied participating, but pieces of his clothing appeared to exactly match that worn by one of the suspects during the robbery,” Det. William Anderson wrote in court documents.
Dupree's story changed multiple times, Anderson wrote. He claimed he let Byers use his car to commit a robbery but denied participating himself.
Byers and Dupree were each charged with first-degree robbery, second-degree kidnapping, second-degree conspiracy, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and wearing a disguise during the commission of a felony.
They were jailed after failing to post $318,000 cash bail.
Anyone with additional information about the robbery is asked to contact Anderson at 302-366-7100, ext. 3469, or wanderson@newark.de.us.
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