[Summit] Robbery suspect from Summit caught

[hennypenny at cox.net]

This was just on the ProJo's news blog today.


Hero to suspect, East Side man charged in 10 breaks
12:57 PM Wed, Jul 07, 2010 | Permalink
Amanda Milkovits    Email
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- For a moment early Tuesday morning, Kurt Breneiser tried to play the role of a hero, telling the police how he tried to stop a criminal stealing a cash register out of an East Side business and was bloodied in the process.

But when two witnesses told a different story, patrolmen Kevin Toole and Frank DeAngelis realized it was more than just a coincidence that Breneiser happened to be around not just one, but three places where burglar alarms were set off, said police Maj. Thomas F. Oates III.

The count eventually rose to 10, as detectives John Coughlin and Sgt. Fabio Zuena linked Breneiser to break-ins at businesses within walking distance of his apartment on the East Side over the last two months. Breneiser was charged with the 10 counts of breaking and entering, and scheduled for arraignment at 6th District Court in Providence on Wednesday.

The 29-year-old man already has a criminal record for break-ins at businesses in South County. Last year, he pleaded no contest to five counts of breaking and entering, plus two counts of entering a building with felonious intent, based on arrests by the state police and the police in North Kingstown and Jamestown. (In one case, Breneiser had used his car as a battering ram to get into a pizza parlor in Exeter.)

Judge Edwin J. Gale ordered Breneiser to 10 years probation, and suspended sentences for 10 years, for each breaking and entering charge. The judge also issued a year's suspended sentence and probation for two charges of vandalism in North Kingstown.

Early Tuesday morning, police officers called about an alarm at Nadia Interiors at 782 Hope St. saw Breneiser walking away. He told Patrolman DeAngelis that he lived in the area, at 568 Hope St., and just happened to be walking by, Oates said. There was no sign of a break-in attempt at the business, Oates said.

At 5:30 a.m., just four hours later, officers were called out to another alarm by 568 Hope St. -- and found Breneiser outside with cuts on his face and hands, Oates said.

Breneiser told Patrolman Toole that he'd fought with a man breaking into a business down the street and was hit in the face with the cash register, according to a police report.

The Not Just for Snacks store, at 833 Hope St., had been broken into by someone who'd climbed onto an industrial air conditioner and forced in a window pane, leaving bloodstains on the sill, the report said. The cash register was on the floor. Someone had also smashed the knob of the back door at nearby Eden Cleaners, but did not get in, Oates said.

As Breneiser talked to the police, two men stopped by and said they recognized him, Oates said. One had seen Breneiser, nose bleeding, walking out from between the two stores. The other man said Breneiser told him that he'd tripped while running and asked for a ride home, Oates said.

After speaking with detectives, Breneiser was charged with a series of break-ins since late May: Z-Bar at 244 Wickenden St.; twice at Cafe Zuni at 10 Traverse St.; Portuguese-American Club at 92 Gano St.; Sebastians Hair Salon at 230 Rochambeau Ave.; Not Just for Snacks at 833 Hope St.; Eden Cleaners at 831 Hope St.; Edward Jones Investments at 247 Rochambeau Ave.; The Barber Shop at 245 Rochambeau Ave.; and Blue Cottage at 748 Hope St.
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