WINDSOR LOCKS: Tech-savvy burglars targeted homes in Connecticut and Massachusetts and broke into a home there after receiving details about the security systems from fellow homeowners, according to arrest warrants issued Friday.
Matthew Colon, 31, of West Springfield, Massachusetts, was arrested for conspiracy to commit first-degree burglary and conspiracy to commit second-degree burglary. Enrique Santiago, 37, of Springfield, Mass., was charged with first-degree burglary, possession of burglary tools, theft of a firearm and conspiracy.
Police said they expected to arrest a third man in the case, which was linked to other burglaries involving heightened surveillance and information about when the homeowner left, according to Colon's arrest warrant.
Early on May 20, 2022, a Green Manor Terrace resident called Long Island police to report that surveillance cameras showed two men walking through his backyard. The arrest warrant states that officers who stopped the burglary found a broken rear sliding glass door and a collection of discarded evidence near the home, including a Wi-Fi jammers, a portable radio, a glass punching tool, A crowbar and bolt cutters.
Burglars broke through the chain link fence and disabled security cameras with manual and Wi-Fi gps blockers, but the poolside cameras were beyond the phone jammer, Windsor Locks Detective Chief Jeff Lampson wrote in Windsor Locks range and continue recording. Affidavit Warrant. The homeowner reported $4,200 in cash missing, along with a man's watch, jewelry and his wife's 9 mm handgun, the search warrant said.
On May 26, a resident two doors down found a pillowcase containing a watch, a gun and other items the victims identified as belonging to them, police said. Police said the location of the bag of stolen goods and a backpack containing a WiFi jammer showed the thieves fled in different directions after the break-in.
Lampson said Friday that federal law prohibits the use or operation of jamming devices and that federal investigators are interested in the case. He said police in the area have noticed the devices are increasingly being used in burglaries.
In this case, however, police say it was DNA that led to the thief's demise. During a search of the Green Manor Terrace property on May 23, a homeowner told police she found a pair of gloves she had never seen before and handed them over to investigators. Police submitted swabs from the gloves and other evidence they suspected the thieves had come into contact with to the state forensic laboratory.
Lampson wrote in the arrest warrant that on Aug. 16, the San Diego lab reported "criminal conduct" with DNA on the gloves. Police said the same DNA was linked to two previous burglary investigations, including a 2010 car break-in in Middletown and a 2012 break-in in South Hadley, Mass., where a gun was stolen. Santiago was arrested in both cases, according to arrest warrants.
Santiago, through his attorney, told Windsor Lock investigators that a man who drove a black sedan and whose father owned a tuning company coordinated the break-in at Green Manor Terrace, the warrant said. When Lampson asked the homeowner if he knew anyone matching that description, the man immediately identified Colon, a co-worker at a home health care company in East Longmeadow, Mass., Lampson wrote in the arrest warrant.
The homeowner said he considered Colon a friend and told him about a trip to Long Island last May, the warrant said. The victim also said Colon and his father helped him remodel the home, the warrant said. He said Matthew Colon had been to his home multiple times and was aware of the security camera system, the warrant states.
When faced with the victim's statements and evidence of the burglary, Colon told police he was "tricked" into the burglary plan by a third suspect in the case.
The suspect's girlfriend also worked in home health care with the Colon and Windsor Locks victims. Lampson wrote in the arrest warrant that other workers at the company reported break-ins at their homes in Massachusetts, including one woman who said Colon had come to her home to help repair a gazebo before the break-in.
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.
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