Man arrested for allegedly hurling beer keg through window of famous Georgetown Cupcake bakery
Washington police have arrested a 28-year-old Maryland man accused of tossing a beer keg through the front window of a popular bakery made famous on a reality TV series.
Charles Joseph Ali of Rockville, Maryland, faces a felony destruction of property charge for allegedly hurling the metal barrel through the front window of Georgetown Cupcake, at the intersection of M and 33rd Streets Sunday night.
He was also suspected in an April vandalism incident involving another business, which remains under investigation. He has not been charged in connection with that one.
The bakery was featured on Discovery's "DC Cupcakes" for three seasons, and the shop is known for long lines that stretch down the block. The owners, Sophie LaMontagne and Katherine Berman, are sisters who quit careers in finance and fashion to launch the family business.
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"Our shop is open," the said in a joint statement Thursday after Ali's arrest. "We will keep doing what we have always done."
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They were barely closed — reopening hours after the attack with a plywood board covering the shattered window.
Berman told Fox News Digital earlier this week that a lone female employee came face-to-face with the keg tosser around 11:30 p.m. Sunday. She fled to the back of the shop, afraid of what he might do.
He left after breaking the window, however, surveillance video shows.
"She was absolutely terrified," Berman said. "She still is. She is really shaken by this. It causes a lot of psychological damage to you."
Earlier, the suspect first tried and failed to rip up a metal trash can from the curb, according to Berman. He went around the corner and came back with a keg that was outside a nearby home, she said, citing additional surveillance video recovered by neighboring businesses.
"He's violent, and I think that, to be honest with you, in our society, we live in a civil society where there's an expectation for us to respect each other, our property, and clearly he didn't do any of those things," Berman told Fox News Digital.