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On Christmas Day 2019, when many Portlanders were spending time with family or enjoying the day off, prosecutors say 40-year-old Anthony Scott Taylor was breaking into two separate apartment buildings and stealing packages addressed to residents. Those break-ins made up a fraction of a three-month spree in which Taylor is alleged to have burglarized buildings on over two dozen separate occasions.
Multnomah County Prosecutors on Thursday charged Taylor with 28 counts of burglary for incidents that occurred between October 7, 2019 and January 7, 2020. The majority of the burglaries happened in Southeast Portland, according to a probable cause affidavit filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court on Friday.
The alleged burglaries followed a typical pattern, prosecutors said: Taylor would break into a secure building using a "small tool" or a "pry bar" and take the residents' packages or other belongings.
One very 21st-century note: Nearly all of the 28 break-ins were caught on surveillance footage, the affidavit says.
After a community member identified Taylor from the footage, police were able to track him down. Taylor admitted to the burglaries and explained them in detail, the affidavit says. He also described to police how he was able to enter the secure buildings.
Some of the property that was stolen has been returned to the victims of the burglaries, police said. Taylor is scheduled to appear in court again on January 27.