Man, Woman Charged With Stealing $1,200 Of Merchandise In Reading: PD

READING, MA — Two people have been charged with stealing a cart full of tools from Home Depot earlier this month in Reading, according to police.

A 31-year-old man with no known address and a 34-year-old woman with no known address are both being charged with larceny under $1,200. The 31-year-old man is additionally being charged with receiving stolen property and possession of a class D substance with intent to distribute, police said.

Police took a report of a theft from Home Depot on Dec. 12 in which a man and a woman walked out of the store with a cart full of tools.

Store employees provided police with a description of the vehicle the two left the area in. Reading police found that vehicle abandoned a short distance away from the store, with some of the stolen merchandise from Home Depot in plain sight inside the vehicle. Police impounded the vehicle as an investigation was underway.

Detectives obtained a search warrant Dec. 14 for the vehicle and located the tools that were taken from Home Depot inside along with a large amount of other merchandise and numerous baggies of marijuana packaged for resale.

A police investigation included reviewing surveillance video from Home Depot and tracking down the registered owner of the vehicle and working with law enforcement partners in several other jurisdictions. The man and woman were identified as the suspects who took the tools from Home Depot, according to police.

Reading police are continuing to work with law enforcement from around the region to identify whether the other merchandise found in the vehicle, most of which still had tags and security devices on it, was stolen from.

The two people arrested will both be arraigned at a later date in Woburn District Court.