Dracut made a nice arrest on a house break Saturday, but it took me a bit to track the story down. It's still worth a mention I think.

They got a call Sunday about 8 p.m., after a resident of 85 Wheeler Road had a guy break into his front door and go running up the steps of his home. The resident yelled at the burglar, who must have thought no one was home.
He promptly ran back down the steps and out the door.

The homeowner had earlier noticed a man come to the door, and then leave in a black Volkswagen with a broken tail light in back. He saw the same car as the burglar fled.

The homeowner, who was unharmed, told police about the Volkswagen, and Sgt. Robert Richard spotted it on Pelczar Road a short distance from the scene.
Both the driver and passenger in the car had arrest warrants, and both were later charged with breaking and entering at night.

The driver was Patrick Donovan, 32, of Dracut. The passenger was Shawn Keefe, 28, of Tyngsboro, who had a couple warrants for other breaks in Lowell and Billerica.

Good thing the resident was attentive enough to notice the vehicle, and that Sgt. Richard was alert enough to spot it.
Police are still investigating whether Keefe and Donovan may have been involved in other recent breaks as well.

Burglaries have been up in Lowell and most towns around the region, although they were down in Dracut between 2007 and 2008. Nice arrests like this could help continue that trend.

So, Monday morning in Billerica, a senior citizen (man in his late 60's, police told me), answered a knock on his front door a little before 8:30 a.m., and found himself face to face with a handgun and a stranger with a mask on his face.
The guy demanded money, got it and fled.
Nearby detail officers got to the scene within 30 seconds and helped secure the scene and keep the scent trail fresh.
Police used a K9 and tracked the suspect to a home nearby. An arrest was made within half an hour. Police say Matt Hill, 23, of 6 Kenilworth St., is charged with armed robbery while masked and home invasion. He is pictured here.

Police say the victim had no idea who Hill was. It was a random assault.
Police also used the Code Red system, which notifies homes in the area about the incident. It was just the second time they used it, I'm told. It's like reverse 911, except it can call way more people all at once since it is setup through a private contractor.
Go here for more information on Code Red.

Bridget Scrimenti did some video on this too.

...you actually see cars parked on the street on milk crates, since all four wheels have been stolen.

Lowell Police made a real nice arrest here.

I hadn't heard about this trend until today, but it seems to show how far people will go these days to swipe themselves something of value. I also saw some poor, out of town, girl in the police station today picking up a report on her GPS unit being stolen.

Remember not to leave valuables in your vehicles folks. It just invites trouble, and if someone smashes your window to get inside, you'll have an insurance deductable.

Just when those of us in the newsroom thought we had heard the last of former Middlesex Register of Probate John Buonomo, an e-mail from Attorney General Martha Coakley arrives.
Press Conference: 4:15 p.m.

In case you forget who Buonomo is, he's a 57-year-old Newton man who got caught doing THIS back in August, 2008.

That's a cash machine in the basement of the Middlesex Register of Deeds building in Cambridge, and District Attorney Jerry Leone says that's Buonomo opening it up to steal some cash. They caught him on camera over a dozen times.
That case is still pending, but it led Buonomo to resign on Sept. 7.

Well, the news from Coakley is that Buonomo was allegedly up to no good way before that.

Based on an investigation by Coakley's Office and the Office of Campaign and Political Finance, Buonomo has been charged with stealing ever since 2004.
Stealing how much? About $100,000, according to Coakley. (Guess he couldn't find a cash machine that would change a $100,000 bill).

Coakley says Buonomo had two schemes.
In one, he wrote himself checks from his campaign committee, supposedly because he had used his own cash to buy postage for campaign materials. Not true, says Coakley. He was just pocketing the cash, she said.
In the second scheme, Buonomo would write checks to Piro Printing, in Somerville, for printing of campaign materials. Coakley says there weren't real printing jobs, though.
Piro Printing owner, Marc Piro, of Wilmington, would cash Buonomo's checks, keep $500 for himself, and give Buonomo back the rest of the cash, sometimes as much as $15,000. Coakley said this was tantamount to laundering the money.
Piro even provided invoices and paperwork, which Buonomo submitted to OCPF to try and cover his tracks.

Piro and Buonomo were both indicted Tuesday afternoon. Both men are charged with larceny over $250, personal use of campaign funds, and willfully misleading investigators. Buonomo is facing two counts each of those first to charges.
They will both be summonsed to court and arraigned at a date to be announced.

Here in the newsroom, we'd love to know just what Buonomo was spending all this money on, but Coakley wouldn't say. She said all that matters to investigators is that it was used for personal expenses. Even if she knows what it was spent on, she's not saying.

The folks at OCPF couldn't tell me exactly how many fraudulent transactions there were between Piro and Buonomo, but here is a list of all the expenditures Buonomo reported in his campaign finance reports. If you're wondering what the difference is, it's that OCPF wouldn't tell me whether all of these transactions were fraudulent.
Piro Printing Payments in Buonomo's Campaign Finance Reports

And last but not least, if what I wrote in the paper today, plus the information here in the blog, isn't enough to satisfy your curiosity about this case, here is the Audio of Coakley's press conference on Tuesday afternoon.

http://www.lowellsun.com/todaysheadlines/ci_12028405

The link is to my story on 2008's crime statistics, in case you made it here without reading that first. It's plenty to think about, and I'll probably write several follow ups on the information as time passes.

In light of all that bad news, I was reminded of how often Superintendent Lavallee encourages neighborhood groups and residents to help police. I've heard him say it a million times at neighborhood meetings.

No matter how good an officer walking the beat is, chances are he or she doesn't know a neighborhood as well as the folks who have lived there for 30 years. And I'd imagine that most homeowners would rather prevent a break-in on their own, rather than need to call police at some point.

A good example came just last night. At 11:30 p.m., I heard Deputy Superintendent Arthur Ryan talking on police radio about an otherwise run of the mill alarm call that police had responded to.
I drove by to see what might have drawn the deputy out so late at night, when he was off-duty and on his own time.
It turns out it really was just a run of the mill call, but the alarm had gone off in a home owned by a friend of the deputy who is out of town. Since the homeowners are away I won't be sharing the address where this happened.

A window in the house had been opened, but nothing inside was taken. It looked like a residential alarm had scared someone off just as they headed into the window. Ryan said that's pretty normal. In all his years on the force, he has almost never seen a home with an audible alarm get broken into.
Once the alarm goes off, it's just easier for a crook to move on and find a house that's less protected.

The moral of all this is that in light of all this bad news regarding crime statistics in Lowell and the surrounding area last year, I fired off an e-mail to Officer Paul Corcoran at Lowell PD.
Paul has been working on safety issues for years now, and has a pamphlet and tips on every type of safety you can think of. He had several on preventing burglaries and theft.

If you're worried about your home or business being burglarized, or just want to read some interesting stuff about how to do a little better should you ever witness a crime, grab some of the documents below. Paul put together all of them, and he's been on the force since 1983, so I think it's safe to say he knows what he's talking about.
A lot of it is a whole lot easier and cheaper than having an alarm system installed. There's some very interesting and easy stuff we could all do too.

For instance, Paul recommends that if you see a crime occurring you should take note of the suspect's shoes.
"Sometimes a criminal will change their clothes but they will not change their shoes," Paul notes.

Burglary Prevention

Business Burglary Prevention

Homeowner Safety Quiz

Got a GPS in your car? Want to keep it? Read this one.

How To Be a Good Witness

Robbery Kit for Business Owners

Good luck.

There have been quite a few robberies the last two weeks, two in Dracut, one in Chelmsford, one in Tewksbury, one in Groton, and one in Lowell in which a woman was robbed when two guys pressed something against her stomach.
She was 4-months pregnant, so that was enough to make her give up her purse.

I'm not sure anyone has been caught so clearly by surveillance cameras as the guy who robbed Enterprise Bank on Gorham Street Tuesday afternoon.
I've learned from previous robberies that most Enterprise branches have darn good cameras inside, and here is even more proof.

If you know who this is, call (978) 937-3200, or Crimestoppers. If you call Crimestoppers, not only can you stay anonymous, but a number you are assigned when you give your tip can help you get up to $1,000 if your information leads detectives to an arrest.