St. Louis police have put a stop to the year-long reign of window-smashing, cigarette-stealing terror one man inflicted on a Family Dollar in the Southwest Garden neighborhood.
Police say that on no fewer than seven occasions between November 2022 and September 2023, 38-year-old Tim Watson threw a heavy object through the store’s window, went inside and helped himself to cigarettes, in all but one case making off with more than $750 in product.
The Family Dollar property damage and burglary charges were just some of the 66 stealing and property damage-related felonies filed against Watson today in St. Louis Circuit Court. He is also accused of committing property damage, burglary or stealing offenses on the Hill, in Midtown, in Lindenwood Park and in the Central West End. “Almost every single” one of the incidents was captured on surveillance video, police say, and Watson left his driver’s license at one of the businesses he allegedly burgled. In several instances, he took cash machines from businesses after breaking their windows.