PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania — Two 19-year-old men have been charged in a string of at least seven gunpoint street robberies across Philadelphia earlier this month, including a holdup outside the Four Seasons Hotel in Center City, Philadelphia police announced this week. Kyeme Hunter and Jaiden Bethea each face seven counts, including robbery, conspiracy, aggravated assault and gun-related offences, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. Both are jailed at the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility with bail of $1,050,000 apiece — NBC10 put the figure at slightly over $1 million — and both are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.

Source: The Philadelphia Inquirer, via True News compilation

Capt. Jason Smith of the Central Detective Division told reporters the two men hid their faces with ski masks and sometimes showed guns — including one with a distinctive blue laser — and committed no fewer than seven robberies, according to the Inquirer. CBS Philadelphia and NBC10 both reported that police called the robberies crimes of opportunity, with victims chosen because they had bags. The outlets differ slightly on the map and the calendar: NBC10 placed the robberies from October 2 through October 6 in Northern Liberties, Spring Garden, Fairmount and near Temple University, while the Inquirer said the spree started October 2, ended the following week, and spanned Center City and North Philadelphia.

The Four Seasons holdup, and what was taken

Outside the Four Seasons, at 19th and Arch streets, a 26-year-old was pushed to the ground, NBC10 reported. Across the robberies, the men took phones, a laptop, credit cards, wallets, jewelry and bags of clothing, the outlets said. No shooting injuries were reported in the accounts of the spree compiled from the three outlets.

A stolen Honda, found abandoned, pointed investigators forward

Smith said a black Honda Accord, stolen in New Jersey, was used in some of the robberies and was later left behind on West Sergeant Street in North Philadelphia, where police found it on October 5, the Inquirer reported. NBC10 said investigators had already tied stolen Accords to the case and also pointed to gloves as evidence.

Two arrests in two days — and two loaded handguns

Officers took Hunter into custody on Tuesday afternoon at his residence in East Mount Airy, on East Hortter Street, the Inquirer reported. A day later, police searched a North Philadelphia house on West Harold Street linked to Bethea and arrested him there with no resistance. Inside, investigators found two loaded handguns: a Luger 9mm whose serial number had been scratched off and which had a blue laser attached, and a polymer 9mm ghost gun, according to the Inquirer. Smith said the guns were "very similar to the two firearms used by the offenders." The Inquirer also reported police seized upward of $11,000 in cash plus a device for programming key fobs, which thieves use to take vehicles with push-button ignitions; NBC10 likewise reported the money and the laser-equipped guns. Police told NBC10 one of the men has a criminal history and the other has none. The charges are allegations; neither man has been convicted of anything in this case.

Source: NBC10 Philadelphia, via True News compilation

Why the key-fob programmer matters beyond this case

The detail drivers should notice is the key-fob programming device police say they found in the search. Investigators link the pair to a stolen New Jersey Honda used in the robberies, and key-fob programmers are the tool that lets thieves clone or enrol a fob and drive a push-button-start car away without its original key. For Punjabi truckers and other drivers who park on Philadelphia streets — and for anyone leaving a car outside a hotel, a gym or a shift — the case is a reminder that the robbery investigation and the car-theft investigation here are the same investigation: police say the street robberies were committed from, and with the help of, a stolen car.

The alleged pattern also explains the bail figure. Seven counts apiece, a defaced-serial handgun, a ghost gun — an unserialized, privately made firearm — and a spree across some of the city's busiest neighbourhoods, from Center City's hotel row to the streets around Temple University, are the factors now in front of the court. Court records indicated neither man had retained a lawyer, the Inquirer reported.