Burglar Caught in the Act in College Hill

Maplewood police arrested a burglar as he fled the scene of the crime in the College Hill neighborhood on Thursday morning.

Maplewood police received a call at 9:40 a.m. on June 9 from an alert Tuscan Road resident who reported a suspicious teenage boy walking around the rear of his neighbor’s home, which is also on Tuscan Road.  

When Maplewood Patrolman Rodney Tannenbaum arrived on the scene, he saw that a screen on a rear first floor window had been tampered with and a teenager was inside the home. The teenage suspect attempted to flee from the officer but he was cornered on the back deck and arrested by Tannenbaum and Patrolman Richard Wright.

As one neighbor told Patch, "Definitely a reminder — if you see something, say something." Neighbors were otherwise impressed with the police response to the incident. "There were a significant number of police officers in the area," said Patch's neighborhood source, who preferred not to be identified.

An interior search of the home indicated that the suspect, a 13-year-old from Maplewood, was in the process of loading several iPods and other items into a back pack when the officers interrupted him. The teenager was charged with Burglary, Possession of a Weapon, Possession of a Weapon for Unlawful Purposes, and two counts of Theft of Movable Property. He was later turned over the Essex County Youth House.