WESTFIELD – A West Springfield man who was fired in May from a Mainline Drive business has been arraigned in Westfield District Court on charges of larceny and breaking and entering after he allegedly returned to the business at night to steal tools and a pickup truck.
Det. Richard Mazza reports in a court document that he began investigating, in June, a breaking and entering and larceny case at a Mainline Drive business in which the business had been entered overnight. The intruder had stolen tools and equipment valued at $2,305.78, loaded them on to a company pickup truck parked in the parking lot and then stole the truck.
The truck, Mazza reports, was eventually found to have been abandoned but the stolen tools and equipment were not located.
In his investigation, Mazza learned of a former employee who had been fired on suspicion of theft in May and interviewed the man at Hampshire District Jail where he was being held on an unrelated case.
Jerome M.Burgess, 25, of 1177 Elm St., Apt. 1, West Springfield, Mazza reports, “readily admitted to breaking into the business and stealing the truck, but stated he could only remember stealing toilet paper while was inside the building.”
Mazza found that Burgess have been hired by the company, All State Hood and Duct on Mainline Drive, in February and had been fired for suspicion of theft in May.
“No tools or equipment went missing or were stolen before the defendant started and since his employment ended” Mazza reports and stated that he found that Burgess had sold some of the stolen items to pawn shops. Mazza was able to recover only one item which was identified as property of Burgess’s former employer.
Burgess was arraigned in the two cases in Westfield District Court on Monday. He was charged with two counts of larceny from a building, breaking and entering a building in the nighttime with intent to commit a felony, larceny of a motor vehicle and larceny of property valued less than $1,200 by a false pretense. He was held in lieu of $50 cash bail in each of the cases pending Oct. 8 hearings.
