Recently in Stolen Stuff Category

An off-duty Chelmsford Officer, Jason Poor, was driving around town this morning when he noticed the green, Chevy S10 that is pictured below driving up and down Tyngsboro Road and Middlesex Street.

Poor recognized the vehicle as one suspected of being involved in several recent house breaks, so he kept an eye on it, and eventually it pulled into Kennedy Drive, where two men got out and broke into a condo at 7 Kennedy Drive, according to Chelmsford Police.

Poor called on-duty officers too the scene, and as soon as the guys inside saw them they jumped out a second-story window and ran, according to Deputy Chief Scott Ubele.

Photo by Jon Hill

Both men were arrested a short distance away.

They were identified as Jose Mercado, 36, of Lowell, and William Ashton, 29, of Lowell.

Both were charged with breaking and entering day, larceny of property over $250, and possession of burglary tools. Ashton faces a second count of breaking and entering because police say he broke into a second building while trying to elude police.

If you recognize his name, it's because he was a party to the lawsuit the Kennedy family, Brian and Michelle Kennedy, filed against Billerica Police a few years ago. He also joined the Kennedy family in asking a federal judge to issue an injunction preventing Billerica Police from arresting them in any other town.

The judge refused. Billerica Police had no involvement in this incident.

Kennedy is also facing charges in Lowell Superior Court because he allegedly broke into the home of a Billerica Firefighter on Handel Road in June of 2008 along with Patricia Barbarossa and stole 11 firearms, cash, jewelry, and even a deer's head.

Barbarossa plead guilty last year.

Ashton and Mercado will be arraigned Tuesday in Lowell District Court. They were being held in Chelmsford last night.

...that the bad guy in this little story is better at plowing than he is at stealing.

Barbara Elkareh tells me she was coming home from the City of Lights Parade with her 9-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son, who had been in the parade, when Elkareh saw a guy on Cross Street having trouble with a plow on the front of his truck.

Elkareh and her husband, Tony Elkareh, run a plow in the winter for the city, so she stopped and tried to give the guy some advice. The guy seemed weird, brushed her off, and Elkareh continued home to Marsh Street.

When she got there, she realized the brand new $5,000 plow that had been in her driveway was gone.

Elkarah didn't need much time to figure out what was up.

She rushed back and saw the guy she had spoken to now pushing the plow down Cross Street, even though it wasn't hooked up to his truck correctly and was dragging against the asphault, throwing off sparks.

Finally, the would-be thief gave up. He dropped the plow and disconnected it from his truck at Cross and Mount Vernon streets, shouted some choice words at Elkareh, and took off up Mount Vernon Street with her chasing after him.

Elkareh said the would-be thief was even nice enough to make a particular hand gesture at her several times out the window as she followed him up Mount Vernon Street.

She lost the truck on Salem Street, and now police are looking for that black or dark blue, newer model pickup truck with a hookup for a plow on the front and yellow lights on the top.

The plow was recovered, and Tony Elkareh was hooking it up to take it home as I left the scene tonight.

Anyone with information on the suspect here should call Lowell Police at 978-937-3200.

I went home just before the fun started Sunday morning.

I worked until Midnight Saturday, and headed home, but I just heard from a resident at 27 Jackson St., Thomas Vachon, that not long after midnight a resident scared off a kid who was casing cars in the parking lot out front.

Police were called, but with the suspect already gone, that's not exactly a priority call. Before officers arrived the suspect was back, and he smashed the window on Vachon's car, and another car.
The kid made off with a GPS unit and a camera from Vachon's car.

This time police did make a priority response, and Vachon said they were there within seconds. Fast enough that the kid had to climb a tree to get over a fence separating the parking lot from the canal.

Unfortunately for Vachon, the kid plunged right into the canal with the GPS unit, which is probably resting rather uncomfortably at the bottom now. His camera was recovered right on the edge of the canal, and is safe.
He's out about $150 for the GPS and $150 for the window, though.

The fire department came and fished the bad guy out of the water, only to learn that he was in fact a mere 14-year-old boy.

Police confirmed Vachon's account and said the kid was charged with breaking and entering motor vehicle, resisting arrest, and disorderly conduct. He was released to his parents later in the morning.

Vachon heard the kid had done this type of thing before.

"It sucks," he said. "I'm more annoyed that he's 14, and this isn't his first time."

Vachon got me some video of the kid taken from a local surveillance camera, but I'm going to have to upload it once I'm home tonight, or tomorrow once the video people here at The Sun are back.
My powerbook just doesn't want to open it correctly.

Someone steals a Chevrolet Jimmy while it's owner is pumping gas at Xtra Mart on Gorham Street, and then drives it into a gas pump, knocking the gas pump completely over.

That wouldn't have impressed me a lot, but then the owner of the Jimmy jumped in the passenger seat, and began to fight with the thief, who was still driving, as the thief hit two other cars and drove down Gorham Street and onto the Lowell Connector, all while fighting with the owner.

That must have been a hell of a site to see it all unfold.

The SUV eventually stopped just after getting on the connector, in the weeds off in the breakdown lane, and that's where this guy was placed under arrest. He's being treated by EMT's here, and was taken to Lowell General Hospital to get checked out.

The ID I got last night was wrong, the suspect is Jason M. Cucinotti of 2 Duris Ave., Billerica.

He is charged with carjacking, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (motor vehicle), operating after revocation, operating to endanger, and malicious destruction of property over $250. He was also arrested on two default warrants.

The carjacking charge surprised me since the owner wasn't in the driver's seat, but police suggested that since the owner was pumping gas he was still in possession or control of the vehicle, which would make it more than just car theft.

Here's a perplexing one from police in Salem, N.H.

Apparently, Salem Police found out on Tuesday that a table containing about $3,500 worth of clothing from the J.Crew store at the Mall at Rockingham Park had been cleared off by thieves.

Quite a haul, but what makes the story interesting is that police say store employees saw two females committing the theft, but called corporate headquarters instead of police, per company policy.
"They were unable to get permission to contact police until the next day," according to Salem Capt. Shawn Patten.

"We continue to be preplexed by the policies of some retailers with regards to notifying and cooperating with authorities when thefts occur in their retail store."

Oh and guess what? Police have no suspects or leads at this time.

I mean, seriously? J.Crew thinks some corporate security stooge is really going to take care of their junk better than police?
Or that it's better to wait 24 hours before investigating a snatch and grab robbery?

I'm not sure I'd buy a ton of clothes from a company with that kind of brainpower. Although, who knows, maybe The Sun will be hit with more layoffs, and if I'm down on my luck I'll know where to "shop."

I ran into this same thing last year when I saw an armed robber running out of Store 24 on Bridge Street.
I walked in just as the guy fled and the clerk was on the telephone, so I didn't call 911 myself cause I didn't want to tie up the 911 operator with two telephone calls.

Instead, I called the Main Desk, and gave a brief description of the guy I saw.

The main desk had heard nothing of this robbery, and I would eventually learn that the clerk had not been on the telephone with 911. He called the store's owner before police.

Frankly, I wonder whether police should be able to just immediately write off such incidents.

Why should police resources be wasted investigating crimes against a company with policies that drastically reduce the possibility of solving the crimes?

Here's an idea. If you're going to rob a guy in the heart of downtown, say at about 10 p.m., on a Tuesday night, at Market and Central streets, maybe don't wear bright red pants while doing it.

Because I'm willing to bet those pants didn't exactly help the cause of the 16-year-old kid who got arrested for just such a robbery tonight.

Police say he and another boy, who got away, pushed and robbed an unidentified man at Central and Market streets, making off with his cellular telephone.

The 16-year-old still had the phone on him when Officer Billy Finn spotted him at Union and Chapel streets a short time later.

He'll be charged with unarmed robbery.

This was a real battle of intelligence, starting at 11:15 p.m., in Lowell.

An 18-year-old Tewksbury woman left her Honda running as it sat at the Getty Mart on Chelmsford Street in Lowell.

The car, surprisingly, was stolen, but the owner saw it being driven away, and a taxi followed it to Highland Street, near Parker Street, where police caught up with it, and arrested Thomas Lopes, 32, of Lowell.

Here's Lopes explaining his masterful criminal theory to detectives Steve Alexander and Chris Kelly.

Lopes was charged with larceny of a motor vehicle, and driving with a suspended license. The car's owner, who was at the scene, called him a "piece of" you guess the third word, and informed him that she hopes he crashes into a tree and dies next time he steals a car.

She drove from the scene while honking her horn, at 11:30 or so, in a residential neighborhood. I think she came pretty close to getting herself pulled over and cited by the officers who had just helped her out.

Are there any winners in this one?

UPDATE: I've gotta add to this and make it a bit of learning experience, because right after I posted this entry, what happened?

I headed home from work, and stopped at Tedeschi at Bridge and West Sixth in Lowell, where a perfectly nice looking girl pulled into the parking lot ahead of me and left her pretty new-looking SUV running while she headed into the store.

So, if you know a young blonde girl who drives a gray, newer-model Ford SUV with a Dracut High School sticker on the back, point out this entry to her, and tell her not to leave her car running next time she's in Lowell.

I'm a little quiet in person, so I didn't mention it. I don't talk to strangers at 12:30 a.m., in Lower Centralville, much less leave my car running.