Police arrest suspected ‘Spider-Man’ burglar they say scaled Miami Beach high-rise

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – A swift and quiet thief known to police as “Spider-Man” is now behind bars after police say he recently crawled up a building in Miami Beach and broke into five units at The Alexander Hotel All Suite Oceanfront Resort last month.

According to an arrest report from the Miami Beach Police Department, 34-year-old Anthony Butler, of northwest Miami-Dade, is facing charges of burglary to an occupied dwelling and grand theft.

“We didn’t hear a thing and I’m a light sleeper,” said Chanie Brisk, one of the victims whose jewelry was stolen told Local 10 News on Jan. 16.

Mayer Greenbaum also said the bandit stole his wallet and his daughter’s and wife’s jewelry. He thought they were safe on the ninth floor of the 18th-floor high-rise, located at 5225 Collins Ave. in Mid-Beach.

Witnesses reported there was a video showing the burglar hopping from balcony to balcony, but Miami Beach detectives have yet to release it.

Bernie Fuchs told Local 10 News that the thief took all of the cash out as well as the gold watch he had stored in his room.

Investigators said all the reported incidents were conducted similarly as Butler scaled the rear portion of the building and went from balcony to balcony looking for unlocked sliding glass doors to enter.

Authorities said in a few cases, Butler used a knife to threaten the victims so that they would hand over their belongings.

After utilizing several law enforcement databases such as license plate readers and surveillance videos, police said they witnessed Butler driving away from the high-rise in a 2023 Toyota Camry and heading west on Interstate 95 after he sold a gold watch that was reported stolen.

While surveilling Butler’s home, located in the 300 Northwest 84th Street in the unincorporated West Little River area, police said they saw him walking near his front door and ordered him to the ground at gunpoint.

After taking Butler into custody without incident, officers said they spoke with his live-in girlfriend.

Police said she gave them consent to search the home, where they collected Butler’s brown Polo slides as evidence. Authorities confirmed the shoe impression was a match with shoe prints that were left behind on one of the balconies of the Alexander Hotel.

Butler’s arrest report states that he waived his rights when speaking to detectives and gave a full confession to the crimes.

Authorities say January’s incident isn’t Butler’s first run-in with the law.

Jail records show he is also facing additional charges of burglary to an occupied dwelling, grand theft, false verification to a pawn broker and dealing in stolen property from two separate incidents last month.

His total bond for all three cases was set at $27,500 as of Tuesday morning.

A few others have been dubbed the “Spider-Man burglar” before. Terry Person, then 28, was arrested after a series of burglaries also at The Alexander in Miami Beach, in 2019.

In 2018, detectives arrested Kevin Glen Jones, then 32, for stealing from dozens of high-rise apartments in Australia. The infamous Vjeran Tomic earned the nickname in Europe after a series of high-profile thefts that included a 2011 heist at a museum in Paris.

Detectives were asking anyone with information about the case to call Miami-Dade County Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477.