Harvard police say they have apprehended the individual responsible for three of four Harvard home burglaries reported during the past two weeks.
According to officer Daniele Fortunato, who led the investigation, the suspect, a Quincy native in his early-to-mid-thirties, is in custody and was to be arraigned in Clinton District Court and charged with all three crimes, as well as several recent burglaries in the town of Lincoln. He is also wanted by Billerica, which has open warrants for his arrest.
Fortunato told the Press that the suspect had “made a full confession.” When asked why he had targeted Harvard and Lincoln, Fortunato quoted him as saying that he was “a city boy,” and “in the city, people lock their doors, but in the towns they don’t.”
The trio of burglaries in town began on August 2, with a break-in at a home on Ayer Road, where the suspect is alleged to have stolen two laptops and a checkbook. Other items were left untouched, according to police, including some loose change. The other burglaries occurred August 6 on Oak Hill Road and August 7 on Old Littleton Road, where laptops, an iPad, and jewelry were stolen.
Police got their first break, according to Fortunato, when the suspect tried to cash one of the stolen checks. When asked for identification, he provided his own name to the bank. An alert employee notified the homeowner of the incident and police were able to follow up and locate the suspect.
“It wasn’t really all that hard,” said Fortunato.
Police have been able to recover some stolen jewelry from the third break-in at a pawn shop in Stoughton. The iPads and laptops, however, were reportedly sold “on the street” for cash, which the suspect used for the purchase of heroin.
A fourth burglary, discovered on August 9 at a summer residence on Wilroy Avenue remains under investigation.
