WESTFIELD – An alert resident who was willing to call police has been credited with foiling a burglary in her Eastwood Acres neighborhood Sunday evening.
City police report that a woman called at 10:02 p.m. Sunday to report that she had seen a male pedestrian who didn’t look like he belonged in the neighborhood walking with a backpack.
She told the dispatcher that her dog had been barking and when she looked out she saw the man and called police when she saw him go behind a nearby house where she knows the family is away on vacation. She said that the man had not yet reappeared.
Officer Seth Florek arrived seconds before Officer Luis Morales and reports that they saw the light of a flashlight in upstairs windows and additional officers were summoned.
Morales covered the front of the house while Florek went behind it to find the back porch door open.
When officers Michael Bradley and Patrick Shea arrived to assist, Florek reports he entered the rear door with Shea and announced the police presence.
Florek reports that his search of the second floor revealed a male party with his head and torso protruding out a bathroom window, apparently attempting to jump to the ground.
The man obeyed Florek’s order to get back inside but did not respond to his instruction to lie on the floor.
Florek reports he observed what appeared to be a knife in the man’s front trousers pocket and, when Shea joined him, he holstered his service weapon and deployed his Taser.
He said the suspect, later identified as Zachary J. Losacano, 29, of 111 Belmont St., West Springfield, stared at him but did not get on the floor as instructed. When he moved his hand toward the putative knife, Florek fired the Taser but one of the darts did not make a secure connection and Losacano was not controlled. When a second probe was deployed he started to fall but was able to break the connection.
The two officers were obliged to manually subdue Losacano and, in the effort, he kicked Florek before he was placed in handcuffs. A knife was removed from his trousers pocket.
Florek reports that several areas of the house had been ransacked and Losacano’s backpack was found in one of the bedrooms.
Florek reports the backpack was open and items of jewelry were immediately seen.
When he investigated, Florek found that the backpack contained more than 200 jewelry items, and after Shea read Losacano his Miranda rights, Florek asked him about the items in the backpack.
Since no vehicles were found in the area that the suspect might have arrived in, Florek asked him how he got there from his West Springfield home and the man told Florek that he had walked there and was going to walk home after he broke into more houses.
He admitted that some of the jewelry had been stolen from another house he had entered and said that he had also stolen a television set there. He agreed to show police where he had cached it and it was recovered but he could not show the officers which house he had entered and the victim was not immediately identified.
The next morning an Eastwood Drive resident called police to report her television set had been stolen overnight.
Losacano was arrested and appeared before Judge Philip A. Contant for arraignment in Westfield District Court on Monday.
He was arraigned on charges of breaking and entering a building in the nighttime with intent to commit a felony, larceny from a building, resisting arrest, assault and battery on a police officer and carrying a dangerous weapon.
Losacano was released on $500 personal surety pending a July 25 hearing.
Police report that additional charges are expected.
