WESTFIELD – Two city teens are facing the consequences of bad decisions they appear to have made in 2011 now that they have been arrested for stealing thousands of dollars from a neighbor.
Det. Sgt. Stephen K. Dickinson reports, in a document filed in Westfield District Court last week, that a two-year investigation into an Old Park Lane burglary has been completed and two brothers have been arrested for the crime.
Michael Joseph Grant, 17, of 141 Bates Road, and Paul Andrew Grant, 19, of the same address, were arrested Monday and charged with larceny of property valued more than $250, breaking and entering a building in the nighttime with intent to commit a felony and conspiracy to commit those crimes
Dickinson reports that in November, 2012, he took up the investigation which recently retired Det. Sgt. Ray Manos had initiated.
Dickinson found that the victim had discovered that, on three separate occasions between March and June of 2011, thousands of dollars in $100 bills had been stolen from his home. He told police that a total of $12,000 had been stolen.
Manos had discovered that the victim and his wife had hired a neighbor’s daughter to take care of their pets when they went away and they had left a key hidden in their unlocked garage to allow her access. They also, Manos was told, had not activated their alarm when they left in order to accommodate the girl.
Manos had discovered that a large number of phone calls had been received at the victims’ house.
When the female victim had called the number in an attempt to learn who had been calling repeatedly, she reached a neighbor, the mother of the cat-sitter, who said she had not called. The woman heard her neighbor ask her son, Michael, if he had called and heard him say no.
Manos continued to investigate the calls and learned from Michael’s mother that he used the cellular phone associated with the number in question.
Michael and his mother came to speak with Manos and during that interview she allowed the detectives to administer a voice stress interview. The results, Det. John Barnachez reports, suggested that Michael lied when he denied both making calls to the victims’ house and stealing money from them.
Manos also found reason to believe that both brothers had a history of stealing.
Their father owns a business in the city and told Manos that he once brought home the store’s receipts. “By morning cash was missing. He eventually got his sons to admit where they hid the money,” Manos reported.
In addition, Manos found that, when Michael was employed at a Pleasant Street business, money was found to be missing there and he later admitted that he stole those funds.
In June, 2013, after Dickinson took over the case, he called Michael’s mother to schedule an interview but she demurred and said she would call him again in a week.
She didn’t call and instead Dickinson heard from a local lawyer who told him that he had advised his client not to speak with police.
Dickinson persevered nonetheless and spoke with Michael’s sister who said that she knew where the key to her neighbors’ house was. She also told him that, when she was too busy, she would occasionally call her brother Paul to help her fulfill her duties, so he too knew where the key was.
She explained that she called him for help because she has a closer relationship with him because he is nearer to her age. She said she never told Michael where the key was hidden.
Dickinson also spoke with Paul who agreed that he would sometimes feed and walk the animals. He said that he knew of the theft but said that he did not believe his brother, who he said he was close to, stole the money.
Dickinson also spoke with at least five friends of the two brothers and was told – piece by piece – tales of free-spending teens who had a seemingly limitless number of $100 bills.
One young man said that Michael “ordered $100 of Dominos pizza, purchased marijuana, cocaine, mushrooms, molly, ecstasy, pills, percosets, clothing and sneakers.”
One of the boys told Dickinson that “Michael was the leader of the operation.”
The youth said “Michael did most of the purchasing. If Paul wanted something he was to ask his brother to get it or they would purchase it together.”
Dickinson explained that one of the problems the flush young men apparently faced was that because of their age – Michael was then 15 and Paul 17 – they could not drive and had to get rides or get others to shop for them.
One of the youth’s Dickinson interviewed told him that Michael wanted a vaporizer to smoke marijuana with and asked him to buy it for him. Dickinson wrote “Michael gave five one hundred dollar bills to him and asked him to go in and purchase the vaporizer and to keep the change. The vaporizer was about $400.”
At least three of the young men told Dickinson a story about a safe that the brothers bought when Michael lived with a friend on Montgomery Road.
All three said that someone – they were reluctant to identify exactly who – had found the safe door open.
The three boys agree that somebody took $1,300 in hundred dollar bill and a bong valued at $200 from the safe.
Dickinson said one boy told him “the person who broke into the safe took approximately $1,300 cash all in hundred dollar bills and divided it amongst some friends.”
At least three youths interviewed said they had been told by one of the brothers – or deduced from overheard comments and conversations – that the brothers had stolen thousands of dollars from a neighbor.
Both of the brothers were taken into custody on Monday, Dec. 2.
Paul was arraigned in Westfield District Court before Judge Philip A. Contant on Tuesday who allowed his release on his personal recognizance pending a Feb. 4 hearing.
As a minor, Michael was arraigned in Holyoke Juvenile Court.
The outcomes of proceedings in juvenile court are not made public.
As a by-product of the burglary investigation, Dickinson reports, detectives discovered evidence to suggest the Michael was selling marijuana and a warrant was sought.
When the warrant was executed Nov. 13, Dickinson reports, scales, packaging materials, cash and marijuana were seized as evidence and Michel Grant was arrested for possession of a Class D drug with intent to distribute and subsequently arraigned in Holyoke District Court.
