K-9 cop closes case of cash box culprit
WOONSOCKET – With the aid of the Woonsocket Police Department’s K9 Aspen, investigators sniffed out the culprit they say is responsible for breaking into five buildings in two states during a span of 48 hours, including a pair of neighboring restaurants on Diamond Hill Road from which he hauled away cash registers containing about $400 in all.
It turns out the crook, who gained entry the same way to both the Empire Buffet and Crown Chicken – by hurling rocks through their front windows – wasn’t very far away.
Police say Shawn Harold Smith, 49, was living in a tent in a patch of woods across the street, in a known encampment for the homeless. Police took him into custody on two felony counts of breaking into a business at 7:17 a.m. Sunday, about five hours after the second of the two restaurant breaks, at Crown Chicken, 828 Diamond Hill Road.
Police say they recovered both cash registers in the woods near Smith’s tent. In addition, they found evidence that ties him to three more breaks in the Pulaski Boulevard section of nearby Bellingham that occurred during the same time period.
“Great job by Woonsocket Police Department!” the Bellingham Police Department said on its Facebook page. “Officer Jason Berthelette and K9 Aspen also recovered evidence that connects Smith to three breaking and entering cases on Pulaski Boulevard from early Sunday morning. We intend to submit charges against Smith for our cases and we will petition to have him returned to Massachusetts following his Rhode Island cases.”
A worker reporting for duty at Crown Chicken discovered what appears to have been the last of the breaks and called police Sunday morning. Patrol Officer Joseph A. Wasilewski reviewed the restaurant’s security video and saw a man throw a rock through one of the front windows and climb in, wearing a red T-shirt over his head bearing the word, “Joker.”
Wasilewski said the intruder went right for the cash register, wrestled it off the counter and lugged it out through the same broken window from which he’d gained entry to the establishment.
He also noticed that the culprit looked much like the figure who, two mornings earlier, had broken into Empire Buffet, 876 Diamond Hill Road – directly adjacent to Crown Chicken. Police say about $250 in cash and rolled coin was stolen in the earlier break, about $150 from Crown Chicken.
After responding to the Crown Chicken break, Wasilewski began poking around the crime scene for clues – and he found one that turned out to be pivotal for Aspen and his keen sense of smell: Someone had draped a green hat over the lens of a security camera affixed to the rear façade of the fried chicken restaurant.
When Wasilewski thought he heard someone rustling through the woods behind the restaurant, Aspen and Berthelette were among at least nine police officers and detectives who responded. They cordoned off the area behind the restaurant as they searched for a possible suspect.
After taking a whiff of the green hat, however, Aspen led the officers to the opposite side of Diamond Hill Road.
“Aspen then led us to the nearby (Peter’s) river and then to the other side of it where another path began behind St. Leon Avenue… to a known camp area in which homeless subjects stay in tents,” the officer reported.
Police said they found Smith in a tent he was sharing with two other people. Inside the tent they found a red Tshirt emblazoned with the inscription, “Joker” – identical to the one seen covering the head of the intruder in the Crown Chicken surveillance video.
Also, a female resident of the campsite told investigators she heard coins dropping on the ground as Smith and a female with whom he was sharing the other tent were talking – less than an hour after the Crown Chicken break was recorded on surveillance video. Without leaving her tent, the witness told police, she yelled out to ask Smith what was going on.
“Don’t worry about it,” he allegedly replied. “It’ll all be over soon.”
The same witness told police Smith had been “bragging” about breaking into Empire Buffet and making off with the cash register.
Shortly after police detained Smith, they found two cash registers, a safe and a blue money bag in the woods nearby.
Police said five people were staying in the two tents pitched in the area. In addition to Smith, they also arrested Jessie J. Heffner, 32 – the woman with whom Smith was allegedly overheard talking after the Crown Chicken break. A third person, David J. Sweeney, 38, who was residing in the other tent, was also taken into custody.
While the breaks remain under investigation, police said Sweeney and Heffner were arrested on already pending, unrelated warrants.