An alleged would-be burglar picked the wrong time to try to rummage through the former Housatonic Wire Co. on River Street.
The building was destroyed in a fire in Sept. 2010. Its wreckage still remains.
On Sunday, Alex Budzinski, the property’s owner, was visiting Carolyn’s Weenie Wagon next door and saw a man enter the property through the back driveway.
Budzinski called police on his cell phone.
“They literally had that place surrounded within three minutes of my reporting it,” Budzinski said.
Inside, police allegedly found a 39-year-old man hiding in one of the fire-damaged buildings of the former factory.
“I said ‘Pal, you picked the wrong place. What are the odds of my being there at that time?” Budzinski said.
Clinton McDevitt, of Ansonia, was charged with third-degree burglary, possession of burglar’s tools, criminal attempt at sixth-degree larceny and criminal trespass.
He was held on $10,000 bond and given a court date of Sept. 12.
The alleged burglar was probably after copper wire, Budzinski said.
Budzinski brought bolt cutters and wire cutters and stripped the place of wires some time ago.
“There’s nothing left in there,” Budzinski said. “He said something like that to the police, and they told him he’s a year too late.”
In the month following the fire, police caught at least two people for allegedly trying to take scrap metal from the site. Budzinski said at the time that people tried to get on the site “every day.”
Budzinski said he was glad the alleged burglar was caught.
“It was excellent police work, they were right on top of it,” Budzinski said.
