A 25-year-old Claymont man is behind bars after police say he and an accomplice broke into a Wilmington auto repair shop and drove off with two customers' vehicles using stolen keys. Tzair Bryant was arrested four days after the break-in and was arraigned in Justice of the Peace Court on Monday, where he was committed to the Delaware Department of Correction on a $3,100 secured bond.
According to Delaware State Police, troopers responded to a report of a burglary in progress around midnight on September 26 at Penny Hill Service and Repair Center, located at 517 Philadelphia Pike in Wilmington. Officers arriving on scene found broken glass on a garage door, but the suspects had already fled before the business could be searched. As NBC10 Philadelphia reported, investigators determined that a man and woman had forced entry into the shop, stolen keys belonging to customers who had left vehicles there for service, and used those keys to take two cars from the property.
Stolen Vehicle Leads Police to Suspect
The break came four days later. The Wilmington Police Department received information that one of the stolen vehicles had been spotted near East 8th Street and North Buttonwood Street on September 30. Officers who responded found the vehicle and took Bryant into custody at the scene; the same report notes he was found with a key belonging to the stolen car.
Bryant now faces a lengthy list of charges stemming from the incident, including third-degree burglary, possession of burglar tools, second-degree conspiracy, criminal mischief under $1,000, and two separate counts of theft of a motor vehicle. Under Delaware law, third-degree burglary is classified as a Class F felony, defined in Title 11, Section 824 of the Delaware Code as knowingly entering or remaining unlawfully in a building with intent to commit a crime inside. Motor vehicle theft, meanwhile, is a Class G felony under Title 11, Section 841A, covering anyone who takes or exercises control over another person's vehicle with intent to deprive them of it.
Police are still searching for the second suspect, a woman believed to have participated in the break-in alongside Bryant. Her identity and whereabouts remain unknown. Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective M. Kerrigan at (302) 365-8487, send a private Facebook message to Delaware State Police, or call Delaware Crime Stoppers at 1-800-847-3333.
Not the First Break-In at This Shop
Penny Hill Service and Repair Center has been targeted before. In May 2024, state police arrested a 43-year-old man in connection with an eight-count burglary spree along Philadelphia Pike that included a break-in at the same shop, where the owner confronted the suspect as he broke into a vehicle, according to First State Update. That suspect was charged with third-degree burglary and possession of burglar tools. The shop, at 517 Philadelphia Pike, has operated as an independent, sole-proprietor business owned by Brian Mitchell since December 2002, per the Better Business Bureau.
This latest burglary fits into a broader pattern of commercial property crime along Wilmington's Philadelphia Pike corridor, where auto service centers and retail businesses have seen repeated break-ins. Hoodline previously reported on a thefts-and-robberies spree along the same corridor that ended with a New Castle County Superior Court sentencing a Delaware woman to five years in prison in July 2024 after she pleaded guilty to first-degree robbery and shoplifting charges tied to a year-long run targeting businesses in Wilmington and Claymont.
Vehicle Thefts Climbing Statewide Even as National Numbers Fall
The case also lands amid a notable divergence between state and national vehicle theft trends. State crime data published by the Delaware Statistical Analysis Center shows motor vehicle thefts across Delaware rose 30% between 2021 and 2025, even as overall serious property offenses in the state declined by 11% over the same period. That spike helped push Delaware lawmakers to act: in May 2026, the Delaware House of Representatives passed House Bill 351 without opposition, creating criminal penalties for possessing, manufacturing, or selling vehicle security circumvention devices and key fob emulators used in car thefts, according to Delaware Public Media, which noted lawmakers cited a 26% increase in Delaware vehicle thefts between 2020 and 2024.
Nationally, the trend has moved the opposite direction. National Insurance Crime Bureau data shows U.S. vehicle thefts fell 22.4% in 2025 to 659,880 stolen vehicles, marking two consecutive years of decline after thefts peaked in 2023. Even so, the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington metro area ranked seventh nationally for total motor vehicle thefts in 2025, recording 19,117 stolen vehicles, according to the Insurance Information Institute, trailing only major metros like Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago.
