SOUTHWICK – A gas station manager who suffered a broken nose in what may have been a pre-arranged robbery at his workplace is painting himself as the victim of an unsavory companion – and his heroin addiction.
An alleged co-conspirator likewise claims to have been used by the active participant in the conspiracy and told police that he is a follower who was driven by his addiction to heroin to be the driver in the scheme.
The crime the trio is allegedly responsible for was initially reported to be an armed robbery shortly after 6 a.m. on Thursday, Jan. 17, at the Pride gas station on College Highway.
Town police responded to a 6:08 a.m. 911 call from a customer who reported an armed robbery at the gas station.
Sgt. Kirk Sanders was the first officer to arrive at the gas station and reports that he found the manager, Richard R. Lind, 43, of Agawam, getting up from the floor which was covered with blood. He face was also covered with blood and a hysterical woman was also in the gas station.
Sanders reports that Lind told him that he had been outside changing the price display on the pumps shortly after he opened and was returning inside via a rear door when a car parked next to him.
A male party exited the passenger side of the car and menaced him with a handgun while demanding money which Lind gave him.
The suspect, after Lind had given him money from the safe, struck Lind’s face with his pistol before he fled.
Lind said that the man returned to the car which left northbound but the customer who had found Lind on the floor said the car went south. She also said that the car left in a controlled manner at a moderate speed.
Lind was transported to Noble Hospital where he was treated for a broken nose.
Sanders reports that he was subsequently advised that a Granby officer, alerted by a radio reports of the suspect car fleeing southbound toward the state line, spotted the car and pursued it but it eventually evaded him.
However, the Granby officer, Sgt. Kurt LaFlamme, advised Sanders that he was able to read the registration plate on the fleeing blue Ford Escort before he lost sight of it.
The plot thickened when a representative of the gas station chain came to the site and advised the investigating officers that Lind was himself a suspect.
Kyle Davidson, a loss prevention investigator for Pride, explained that Lind had been late reporting the station’s deposits the night before and, unbeknownst to Lind, he had come to the station to check the safe.
Davidson said that he found two money bags had been ripped open and about $10,000 was missing.
He said that he and a colleague had planned to confront Lind that day.
Southwick Det. Sgt. Robert Landis became the lead investigator into the crime and reports that he spoke with Lind, who made a written statement about the crime.
In his statement, Lind stated that the robber was wearing a hooded sweatshirt which concealed most of his head and had a lighter colored cloth across the lower part of his face. He said the man had an unmarked white plastic bag when he demanded money.
Lind stated that the safe had been open and reported “I am not sure how much I grabbed. I believe it was just the two bank bags. I place (sic) the money in the white bag. When I looked up I just saw a flash. He had hit me in the face with the gun. That was the last thing I had seen….I never noticed the car leaving.”
Addressing the missing cash the investigators had discovered, Lind stated “I do admit that I took some over the last week or so. I have been struggling with a heroin addiction on and off for the past five years. I was taking the money to buy drugs.”
He went on to state “I know it does not look good but the two incidents are not related, I owe no one any money and cannot think who would do this.”
Landis, however, went to work and found two persons, in addition to Lind, who would.
Working with the registration number of the getaway car, and a transaction receipt which apparently fell from the car at the gas station, Landis began investigating the car’s owner, Lucas Mayette, 32, of 1881 Main St., East Hartford, Conn.
Landis found that Mayette, and his car, had not bees seen at his residence after the robbery.
Further investigation indicated that Mayette was familiar with the Southwick area because he had worked for a contractor in the town and two persons told Landis that he has a narcotics addiction.
An investigation into Mayette’s phone records showed that he had called a number associated with Anthony Tangredi, 30, of 273 Commonwealth Ave., Springfield, and Lind acknowledged in a Feb. 2 interview with Landis that he too knew Tangredi.
Lind said that his son plays on the same basketball team Tangredi’s son plays on and also said that he had known Tangredi’s now deceased father and had promised him that he would “look after Anthony.”
He also admitted that he gets drugs from Tangredi.
“I get Percocets from Anthony and I get high with him, either pills or dope, I mean heroin.”
However, he denied that Tangredi had been the robber saying “I know it was not Anthony that came and hit me because I know his voice and would have laughed at him.”
Landis’ investigation started to make real headway two days later when he was able to develop information indicating that Mayette was holed up at his father’s residence in Sherman, Conn.
Working with Connecticut state troopers, Mayette was taken into custody without incident and, in a subsequent interview, explained that he had been recruited by Tangredi to drive during the staged robbery.
Landis reports that Mayette said that he and Tangredi would purchase heroin and “get high together.”
He said that, although he had never met Lind, Tangredi told him that he and Lind had been planning the robbery for weeks and “it would be easy.” He said that Tangredi told him all he had to do was drive.
Mayette told Landis that, after the robbery, when he saw blue lights behind him, Tangredi urged him to keep going and he eventually lost the pursuing officer by driving the wrong way up a highway ramp.
Once away from the police, Mayette said, Tangredi told him to pull over and, when he did, Tangredi got out with the stolen money.
Mayette said that Tangredi’s last words to him were “I will bail you out.”
The next day Landis met with Lind in a meeting instigated by Lind.
At that time, Lind presented a scenario different from his previous account.
He said that shortly before Thanksgiving he had been having a cigarette with Tangredi at their sons’ basketball game when the subject of his employment and how much money at the gas station came up.
Lind said that he jokingly responded “Why don’t you come and rob me?’
Lind said that he had not been serious but Tangredi kept bringing up the subject at subsequent meetings and Lind felt pressured to follow through with what had been an idle fantasy.
“It was supposed to happen about ten times before it did. I kept backing out saying I was not ready” Lind wrote in a statement for Landis.
He said that Tangredi came to the station several times and said that he twice gave Tangredi money from the station to mollify him but said that Tangredi was getting angry and “told me I better not be playing him. I took this to be a legitimate threat” Lind wrote.
He went on to write “He told me he has guns…. I believed he would try to hurt me or actually rob me.”
Lind said that Tangredi called him again on the Thursday of the robbery and he finally gave into his pressure. He also told Landis that he had not expected to be injured in the robbery.
“We had talked before about maybe a cut lip or something but that conversations faded from the idea.”
Linda also denied that the robbery was staged to cover up for the money he had embezzled.
“I could have hidden the fact that I was taking money from Pride” he stated.
Landis said that he secured an arrest warrant for Tangredi and, with assistance from the State Police Fugitive Apprehension Team, Tangredi was arrested at his girlfriend’s house in West Springfield.
Lind claimed that the entire scheme had been instigated by Tangredi. “This thing was always his idea from the get go.”
Lind also said he never received any of the stolen money.
He said that he spoke with Tangredi at a basketball game after the robbery and Tangredi said that he had left the stolen money under the seat of Mayette’s car when they separated.
Lind blamed his participation on his addiction.
“My lack of judgment has been revolved around my drug addiction” he wrote. “I would give my arm not to be an addict. It is destroying my life.”
Tangredi was arraigned Monday in Westfield District Court on charges of larceny of property valued more than $250, armed assault and battery with bodily injury, intimidating a witness and conspiracy.
He was held in lieu of $10,000 cash bail or $100,000 bond.
Mayette was arraigned Feb. 8 on charges of assault and battery with a dangerous and robbery while masked and armed with a firearm.
He was held in lieu of $1,500 cash bail.
Landis said that Lind will be summoned to court to answer charges of conspiracy and larceny of property valued more than $250.
