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Date: 12/22/2021
EAST LONGMEADOW – Two arrests were made by the East Longmeadow Police Department (ELPD) in relation to a rash of break-ins in town.
The break-ins, targeting residential garages and sheds, began Nov. 1. The East Longmeadow Police said roughly 20 people have reported the crimes since then. “Items like leaf blowers, generators and snow blowers have been taken in these thefts,” Chief Mark Williams wrote in a statement on the situation.
“Break-ins and property thefts are, unfortunately, pretty common year-round here,” Williams told Reminder Publishing, though he emphasized that that was a generalization.
The thefts have mostly been concentrated in the northwest corner of the town, on either side of North Main Street, around Thompkins and Gates Avenues to the west and Vineland and Kensington Avenues to the east.
According to the ELPD, on Dec. 15, two hours after a report came in about stolen items on Kensington Avenue, a man was seen fleeing a shed on Braeburn Avenue after being confronted by the homeowners. Then, about an hour later, items were reported missing on Vineland Avenue. Officers Ben Roncarati and Zackery Poremba, who had responded to the area calls enlisted the aid of Detective Michael Ingalls after finding “multiple items which matched the description of stolen items along the wood line in back of neighboring residences,” a statement from the ELPD read. Ingalls surveilled the area, suspecting that the thief would return. Police detained Robert Lopez, of Springfield, when he pulled up to the area in a vehicle. He was arrested on a charge of unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, the ELPD stated.
At the same time, Roncarati arrested Jonathan Martinez, of Springfield, when he was found walking on a nearby street. The ELPD stated Martinez was, “wet and dirty, as if he had been outside for some time and had been in the woods.” Martinez was arrested and charged with two counts of larceny from a building and two counts of breaking and entering in the nighttime with intent to commit a felony.
Lopez and Martinez were arraigned in Palmer District Court on Dec. 16. The ELPD stated, “The investigation is ongoing, and further criminal charges may result against Lopez, Martinez and other accomplices.”