Philadelphia police said a 35-year-old man was robbed at gunpoint Friday afternoon while sitting at a sidewalk table outside a Rittenhouse restaurant on 18th Street. The suspect took the man's laptop and fled south on 18th Street. Police later arrested a person in connection with the robbery.
According to NBC10 Philadelphia, police said the suspect pointed a gun at the victim, grabbed his laptop and fled southbound on 18th Street. The victim had been sitting outside the restaurant when the robbery occurred.
Police have not released a description of the weapon or additional evidence.
Police Investigation Continues
Police are investigating video shared with the Word to the Wise podcast that showed the robbery, according to the outlet's reporting. Details about the suspect's identity have not been released.
How the Case Fits Citywide Crime Data
Citywide figures provide context but cannot establish how common this particular type of robbery is. According to the Philadelphia City Controller, shooting incidents declined annually after 2021, reaching 979 incidents in 2025. Separately, WHYY News, citing Philadelphia Police Department data, reported that gun robberies were down 22% for the year. Those citywide measures are not directly comparable to a single laptop robbery and do not establish its cause or frequency.
Anyone with information about the robbery is asked to call 215-686-TIPS (8477), police said. The tip line remains the primary avenue for the public to help detectives piece together what happened outside the restaurant.
Recent Center City Robberies Provide Context
Recent robbery reports in Center City include an incident in which two masked men — one carrying an AR-15-style rifle and the other a handgun — robbed a 23-year-old man of two gold chains and demanded his silver diamond watch around 2:15 a.m. on the 1500 block of Sansom Street, according to 6abc. The suspects fled west on Sansom Street, and no injuries were reported. The outlet said the incident occurred less than a week after another Center City robbery involving a rifle; no arrests had been made in either case.
That earlier robbery, reported by Audacy, saw three masked men pull up on the 1500 block of Locust Street around 3 a.m. in a Honda and rob three people — ages 27, 35 and 36 — at gunpoint. Two of the men carried handguns while a third had an AR-15-style rifle, and the group took phones, watches, keys, wallets, IDs and an undisclosed amount of cash before fleeing south on 15th Street. Detectives later determined the Honda had been stolen out of Cheltenham the week before, according to the outlet.
Detectives continue working the case.
