While the cat’s away, the mice will … smash your windows and steal your guns?
A 17-year-old New Haven man is accused of breaking into a Shelton home in August, stealing electronics, jewelry and four handguns.
The suspect was dating the homeowner’s daughter, who was on a Caribbean cruise with her family while the boyfriend and two other suspects broke in.
Ouch.
The alleged conniving Romeo now faces six felonies — four counts of stealing a firearm along with single counts of first-degree burglary and second-degree larceny.
The teen was arrested last month and made his first court appearance Tuesday in Superior Court in Milford.
The Valley Independent Sentinel is withholding the suspect’s name because of his age.
No one else has been arrested. Police continue to investigate.
The teen is accused of stealing four handguns: a 9 mm Glock, a silver and black Smith & Wesson revolver, a .25 caliber Iver Johnson and a .380 caliber Beretta.
Thieves also stole $14,000 worth of diamonds and Tiffany jewelry, two flat screen televisions — and cologne. “Drakkar Noir” and Elizabeth Taylor’s “Passion for Men,” to be precise.
Police searched the boyfriend’s home, but didn’t recover any of the items. Detective Ben Trabka said police believe the guns and jewelry were sold on the street.
Girl’s Room Off Limits
Police believe the boyfriend is the culprit for several reasons.
First, he knew the secret code for the family’s burglar alarm — which was activated and then turned off the morning of the burglary.
Second, the burglar allegedly stole items from every room in the house — except the girlfriend’s bedroom, where an iPod, laptop computer and flat screen television were left in place.
And finally, police traced the teen’s cell phone use to a tower within two miles of the burglary during the morning hours before and after the alarm went off.
An Hour Wait
Police said the suspects broke windows, slipped into the home, and deactivated the burglar alarm. Then they left.
A police officer responded to the alarm and found the front door locked. The officer wasn’t able to get or see into the back yard because of a locked six-foot fence. He left.
About an hour later, the suspects returned with an empty pickup truck. Six minutes later, the truck left the street, with “items protruding from the bed of the truck,” according to court documents.
Police were able to piece together a time line based on surveillance footage from a nearby restaurant. The footage shows three men running through the restaurant’s parking lot around the same time the alarm at the house sounded — at about 4:30 a.m.
A Phone Call
While all that was happening, the homeowners were on a cruise — with no cell phone reception. Five days later, the homeowner checked his voicemail from a port in Puerto Rico.
The alarm company had left a message saying his alarm had gone off, and had then been deactivated with the code.
The homeowner called police.
With permission to break the lock on the fence, police went back to the home and inspected the back yard. They saw two dining room windows smashed, and the locks pushed aside. Windows in the back kitchen door were also broken, but a dead bolt lock remained in place.
The homeowners told police they did not approve of the relationship between their daughter and the suspect, and had previously come home to find him hiding in their house.
The teen is scheduled to appear in court again on May 13. His attorney, Ruben Rodriguez, declined to comment on the case.
