WESTFIELD – A city man got a rude surprise Friday morning when he discovered a man he knew inside his home stealing thousands of dollars from him.
City police responded to a report of a breaking and entering case in the City View neighborhood shortly after 8 a.m. and the resident said that he had caught an acquaintance in the act stealing cash from a cache he keeps in his home. He said that the door of his home had not been secured.
The victim told the lead investigator, Det. Anthony Tsatsos, that he had been alone in the house after his wife went to work and was in his bathroom when he heard a noise coming from another second floor room.
When he investigated, the man said, he found a man he knows taking envelopes of cash from an ammo box which had been stored in a spare room. He said the noise he had heard was the sound of the intruder opening the ammunition can.
Tsatsos reports that when he inspected the crime scene he observed signs of a struggle and found an ammo can on the floor which contained several cash-filled envelopes. The victim said that the ammunition box had contained $47,000 in cash which had been stored in several envelopes. Tsatsos reports that he found the cash in the remaining envelopes totaled only $36,000.
The victim indentified the thief as Paul C. Roy, 41, of 33 Homer Ave., Chicopee, and said that he had known him since 2007. The victim told police that he and the suspect had played together in the same pool league and had both gone to Las Vegas as part of a pool tournament.
In addition, he said, he had hired Roy to paint the interior of his home. He told the emergency dispatcher that Roy must have searched the house while he was there to paint and apparently discovered where he keeps a cache containing thousands of dollars.
The victim said that he confronted Roy and “threw him into a wall to make him drop the envelopes.”
He quoted Roy as saying, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m in a bad place they are going to kill me.”
The victim said that he struggled with Roy and when their struggle reached the front door downstairs Roy fled from the house and drove away.
Police in surrounding communities were notified to be on the lookout for Roy’s 2001 Chevrolet Monte Carlo and special emphasis was give to the Holyoke police who, in little more than a half hour, reported locating the car.
Eleven minutes later, Holyoke police reported that they had taken Roy into custody.
Tsatsos reports that, when Roy was taken into custody at the corner of Oak and Appleton streets, “Roy had $8,800 in cash on him, and a bundle (ten packs of heroin).”
When interviewed at the station, Tsatsos reports “He stated that he had been at (the victim’s house) since last night (2300hrs) playing pool for money with (the victim). Roy states that (the victim) lost a substantial sum, became angry and threw him around.”
When the victim’s wife was interviewed, she said that nobody had been at her home the night before and when she left for work the only vehicles in her driveway belonged to her family.
Tstasos reports that Roy consented to a search of his vehicle where “envelopes matching those from the (victim’s) home (sic) recovered from the vehicle.”
Roy’s sneakers were seized and, Tsatsos reports the “tread appears to match shoe prints (found) on driveway.”
Roy was arraigned yesterday in Westfield District Court before Judge Philip A. Contant on charges of breaking and entering in the daytime with intent to commit a felony and larceny of property valued more than $250.
He was released on $500 cash bail pending a Feb. 20 hearing.
