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Crime Trend Watch: Breaking and Entering, burglaries

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Three men were arrested this week, one for burglary, one for aggravated burglary and another for breaking and entering. Two of the three also left blood trails at the scenes of the crimes, which after lab results, will help to solidify them as suspects of the alleged crimes.

A determined, but unwanted bedfellow

Arguably, one of the most terrifying things to happen to someone is for them to come home and find their sanctuary broken into. This happened to one woman in Indian Hills June 18.

Gallup Police Department Officer Chris Molina wrote in his report that a broken bedroom window alerted the homeowner that someone had been in the residence, and blood found in the kitchen and at the front door then trailing out into the driveway suggested that the person had cut themselves on the broken window glass before exiting the house. Nothing was taken from the residence.

That same day, about two hours later, police were again called to the home on Chaco Drive. The 53-year-old female resident told Officer Justin Benally that she was cleaning up the broken glass when she heard someone at the door.

Jonathan Tyler, 30, of Gallup was standing at the front door asking to come inside. The resident told him no, gathered her belongings and left the house. A neighbor told police that they had seen a man climbing into the window. Officers located Tyler sleeping on a bed inside the house and arrested him for breaking and entering.

Was he just hungry?

GPD were called to Jerry’s Cafe June 18 by a someone walking who had noticed broken glass and a person inside the restaurant.

According to the report, filed by Officer Jessie Diaz, officers located Josue, Lopez, 21, of Chicago, Ill hiding against the wall outside the business.

K9 Officer Kwinto along with officers made sure there was no one else inside Jerry’s.

“Smoke was present in the business,” Diaz said in his report. “K9 was directed to the kitchen where the smoke was coming from, the stove was on.”

GPD found meat products laid out on a cutting board along with some kitchen utensils.

They also found, according to the report, socks in a booth and an empty bottle of chocolate milk. A front window was broken, a door inside the business was damaged and a camera was also damaged and removed from it’s casing.

Lopez was arrested and charged with burglary, a felony and larceny.

Verdi Drive Residents Terrorized By Intruder

Three homes were burglarized in the Mossman area during the early morning hours of June 19. While officers were at one home on Verdi Drive investigating a burglary, they heard screaming coming from another nearby home, where they caught up with Giovanni Tom, 18.

The first home was occupied by a mother and daughter, who were asleep together and both felt someone touching their legs. The mother told police that she thought it was her daughter, covered up and went back to sleep. The daughter, woken up by the fondling, saw a male crouched by the foot of the bed rubbing her legs. She screamed, which woke up her mother.

The man took off running.

According to the statement of probable cause, GPD Officer Charles Steele later found that the electrical breaker box had been turned off, all of the window screens had been removed and the man had made entry to the home by the front window. Blood evidence in and around the house supports this theory.

That darn cat –or not!

Screaming down the block on Verdi alerted officers to another possible break in.

Just down the street, homeowner Brian Morris told police that he heard noises and thought it was his cats.

Morris told police, according to the statement of probably cause, that “the male looked at him, waved and ran out of his yard.”

Morris saw the man running with a wheelbarrow full of items. When he called out to the male, he dropped the wheelbarrow and only took some items and ran up the hill where he dropped those items.

GPD found Tom at the top of the hill, matching descriptions from both Verdi homeowners.

According to the statement, he was disorderly with police and had to be tazered before being taken into custody. Tom was taken to the hospital for medical clearance due to a cut on his left hand.

“He cut his hand on the fence over by Jefferson Elementary when he jumped over the fence, because blood was also found over at the school,” GPD Captain Rick White said.

No fishing trip for Tom

Several hours later, police were called to a residence on Gladden avenue, where Michael McMahon reportedly had some fishing items stolen out of the tool box in the back of his truck and out of his boat. The items reported stolen were the same that GPD recovered from the wheelbarrow and the area of Tom’s arrest.

Tom was charged with two counts of aggravated burglary where a battery was committed, attempted breaking and entering, burglary, retaining stolen property, disposing of stolen property and burglary to a vehicle.