Officers who interrupted the break-in found a shattered rear sliding glass door and a trail of discarded evidence near the house, including a WiFi jammer, two-way portable radio, glass punch tool, pry bar and bolt cutters, according to the warrant. — Photo by Rafael Classen rcphotostock.com: https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-opening-a-door-with-a-bar-11465293/
WINDSOR LOCKS: Tech-savvy burglars who have targeted homes in Connecticut and Massachusetts broke into a local residence after getting detailed information on the security system from the homeowner’s co-worker, according to arrest warrants obtained Friday.
Matthew Colon, 31, of West Springfield, Mass., was arrested on charges of conspiracy to commit first-degree burglary and conspiracy to commit second-degree larceny. Enrique Santiago, 37, of Springfield, Mass., faces charges that include first-degree burglary, possession of burglary tools, stealing a firearm and conspiracy.
Police said they expect to arrest a third man in the case, which is connected with other break-ins that included advanced surveillance and information about when homeowners would be away, according to the warrant for Colon.
Early on May 20, 2022, a Green Manor Terrace resident called police from Long Island, reporting that a security camera showed two men walking through his backyard. Officers who interrupted the break-in found a shattered rear sliding glass door and a trail of discarded evidence near the house, including a WiFi jammer, two-way portable radio, glass punch tool, pry bar and bolt cutters, according to the warrant.
The thieves had cut through a chain link fence and disabled surveillance cameras both manually and with the WiFi jammer, but one camera by the pool was out of range of the jamming device and continued recording, Windsor Locks Detective Sgt. Jeff Lampson wrote in the arrest warrant affidavit. The homeowner reported US$4,200 in cash missing, along with men’s watches, jewellery and his wife’s 9 mm pistol, the warrant said.
On May 26, a resident two houses away from found a pillowcase containing the watches, handgun and other items that the victims verified were theirs, police said. The locations of the bag of loot and the backpack with the WiFi jammer showed the burglars fled in different directions after the break-in, police said.
Federal law prohibits the use or operation of jamming devices and federal investigators are interested in the case, Lampson said Friday. He said police in the area are starting to see more use of the devices in residential burglaries.
In this case, however, police said DNA proved the thieves’ undoing. During a daylight canvass of the Green Manor Terrace area on May 23, a homeowner told police she found a pair of gloves she had not seen before and handed them over to investigators. Police submitted swabs from the gloves and other evidence they suspected the thieves had touched to the state forensic laboratory.
On Aug 16, the lab reported an “offender hit” from DNA on the gloves to Santiago, Lampson wrote in the warrant. Police said the same DNA was connected with two previous burglary investigations, including a car break-in in Middletown from 2010 and a 2012 burglary in South Hadley, Mass., where firearms were stolen. Santiago was arrested in both cases, according to the warrant.
Santiago told Windsor Locks investigators through his lawyer that a man who drove a black sedan and whose father owned a remodeling company coordinated the Green Manor Terrace burglary, the warrant stated. When Lampson asked the homeowner if he knew a person matching that description, the man immediately identified Colon, a co-worker at a home health care business in East Longmeadow, Mass., Lampson wrote in the warrant.
The homeowner said he considered Colon a friend and had told him about his trip to Long Island last May, the warrant stated. The victim also said Colon and his father had helped him remodel his house, the warrant stated. He said Matthew Colon had been to his home numerous times and was aware of the surveillance camera system, the warrant said.
Confronted with the victim’s statements and evidence from the burglary, Colon told police he had been “wheeled in” to the burglary scheme by the third suspect in the case, the man police said they expect to arrest soon, according to the warrant.
That suspect’s girlfriend also worked at the home health care business with Colon and the Windsor Locks victim. Other workers at the business reported their homes in Massachusetts had been burglarised, including a woman who said Colon had been at her house to help fix a gazebo before the break-in, Lampson wrote in the warrant.
Cellphone records showed calls between Colon, Santiago and the unidentified suspect in the Windsor Locks burglary before and after the break-in, the warrant stated. Police said the third suspect is a felon with a long criminal record that includes armed robbery and numerous burglaries.
Santiago also has a long rap sheet, including convictions in Connecticut for burglary and larceny, the warrant stated. Massachusetts investigators said they believe he is part of a criminal organisation involved in targeted burglaries, according to the warrant. He posted US$150,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in state Superior Court in Hartford on May 31. Colon posted bond of US$100,000 and is to appear in court on May 2. – The Stamford Advocate, Conn./Tribune News Service
