Man got $14G from fast-food heist; now he gets prison
MEDIA COURTHOUSE >> A Philadelphia man arrested in October for stealing more than $14,000 from an Eddystone McDonald’s was sentenced Wednesday to 18 to 54 months in state prison with two years of probation.
Adrian Greenfield, 39, of the 5600 block of North Fairhill Street, entered an open guilty plea last month to one count of robbery while threatening seriously bodily injury and one count of conspiracy to robbery, both felonies of the first degree.
Greenfield was arrested approximately two minutes after the robbery occurred, according to authorities. Eddystone Police Officer Shane Coyle was en route to the restaurant at 1576 Chester Pike at about 12:28 a.m. Oct. 3 for a report of robbery when he spotted a man matching the description of the suspect walking along Chester Pike at Saville Avenue and turned his cruiser around to make a pedestrian stop.
The man, later identified as Greenfield, was profusely sweating and out of breath. He was carrying a red baseball cap and sweatshirt, and had a do-rag around his neck “tied to the exact tightness it could be used as a mask as if he just pulled it down his face,” according to the affidavit of probable cause.
As Coyle questioned Greenfield, Officer Ryan Sweet received a description of the robber from the McDonald’s staff, who indicated he was wearing a red hat and black mask.
Sweet relayed the description to Coyle, who detained Greenfield. Sweet also watched surveillance footage from the restaurant and matched Greenfield’s clothing to that worn by the suspect in the video.
The employees said they were leaving the restaurant when a man wearing a red baseball cap, a hooded sweatshirt up over his head and a do-rag over his face ran up to them. The man had his hand in his pocket and told them he had a gun.
The robber forced the employees into the office and told them to get on the ground, then had the manager open a safe and transferred the cash to a yellow plastic grocery bag. Greenfield told the employees not to look at him or he would shoot them, the affidavit says.
Officer Timothy Kearny of the Ridley Township Police Department located the yellow Shop Rite bag in the 1300 block of Chester Pike with the money still inside. Assistant District Attorney Brian Doherty sought three to 10 years for the crime at sentencing before Delaware County Common Pleas Court Judge Richard Cappelli Wednesday, citing the lasting impact it is expected to have on the victims.
“This isn’t something that just happened in five minutes and it’s over with,” he said. “This is something that is going to stay with all these victims for the rest of their lives and it’s certainly a traumatic experience to be faced with your own death over some type of completely unnecessary action on the defendant’s part.”
Doherty also read a letter from one of the victims into the record indicating all of the managers were transferred to other stores and one employee quit.
“This was a traumatizing event for someone who has never gotten robbed before,” Doherty read. “I’m double checking and being very cautious about everything. This is not a very good feeling at all.”
Defense attorney Scott Kramer said his client is truly remorseful and that the robbery took place at “a very significant moment of weakness” when Greenfield had fallen into drug use as his marriage fell apart.
Kramer noted Greenfield had not been in any serious trouble with the law before and pleaded guilty at the first opportunity. He added that he wanted to implicate an unindicted co-conspirator, but had received threats from that man.
Doherty said Greenfield could still indict his accomplice if he wants to, but should be held responsible for his own actions.
Greenfield, who has been incarcerated since his arrest, apologized to the victims and said he was ashamed of himself. He said he wants to right his wrongs and come out of his prison term a better role model for his children.