Iowa City man with colorful criminal history charged with breaking restaurant window
Hunter
08/26/24
An Iowa City man wanted for unauthorized use of another person’s debit card was arrested over the weekend after allegedly breaking the door window of a Mexican restaurant.
Officers responded to the El Paso restaurant on Hollywood Boulevard at approximately 2:30 Saturday afternoon on reports of a man yelling at customers and hitting their door with a stick. 56-year-old Gary Leon Duffel, who has a long criminal history in the area, was on scene and reportedly had a broomstick in his shopping cart. The window of the door had been broken, and Duffel allegedly admitted to hitting the door with the broomstick because of what he said were crimes committed by the owner 12 years ago.
A post-arrest search of Duffel reportedly found a glass pipe with burnt residue.
He was charged with 4th degree Criminal Mischief and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia.
Duffel had a warrant on a charge of Unauthorized use of a Credit card from a July incident where he used a woman’s US Bank debit card without her permission, charging over $21 in three separate transactions at the Burlington Street Kum & Go.
If convicted on all three counts, Duffel could be sentenced to over three years in jail.
In June 2022, Duffel was sentenced to five years in prison in a plea deal in regards to an incident that happened on July 4th 2021. Duffel allegedly broke into a woman’s apartment with the intent of having sex with her, and tried to remove her clothing against her will. He reportedly broke a chair during the struggle, and later admitted that he had just met the woman earlier in the day and didn’t even know her name.
Duffel is well known by police for his various criminal antics over the years. Some of the more interesting incidents include cutting down the flag outside the Iowa City VFW hall in 2018, urinating on the front porch of then-Iowa City City Councilor Mike Wright in 2010, and toppling the Irving Weber statue at the corner of Iowa Avenue and Linn Street in 2007, breaking off the arm and causing an estimated $12,000 in damages.