Cops deposit ‘Cash’ in jail after alleged burglary
WOONSOCKET – A familiar panhandler walked uninvited into a couple’s apartment in the Social neighborhood, refused to leave for nearly an hour and, when he finally did, allegedly made off with the owners’ cell phones, police said.
James B. “Cash” Ruth, 30, of 26 Paradis Ave., was ordered held without bail at the Adult Correctional Institutions following an initial appearance on one count of burglary in Sixth District Court Monday. He was also charged separately as a probation violator on a May 25 conviction for passing counterfeit bills in North Smith- field, according to the judiciary’s web site.
Police said they arrested Ruth shortly before 1 a.m. Sunday, after they were contacted by a woman who lives at 601 East School St., who told them a man she knew as “Cash” had taken cell phones from her apartment that belonged to her and her husband. The woman told police she had come to recognize the man because he frequently hung out in a nearby parking lot asking people for money. Once, she said, she felt sorry for him and had given him $10.
But he’d never been inside her apartment before, nor had
he ever been invited in previously, the woman told police. That all changed around 10 Saturday night when, with three small children in the apartment, she was startled as Ruth simply walked in without knocking or otherwise announcing himself at the door.
Suspecting he was looking for a place to stay the night, the woman immediately instructed the intruder to leave, but he refused. A police report says Ruth was “acting arro- gant,” explaining, “You know me, I’m just visiting.”
The woman told Officer Joseph Wasilewski she was nervous and didn’t want to upset her children by making a scene, so she continued to discreetly “beg” Ruth to leave the apartment. When he eventually did – after about 45 minutes – she realized that two cell phones belonging to her and her husband – an iPhone 7 and an iPhone 7 Plus – were both missing. The phones are worth about $500 each, the police said.
The couple initially tried to take matters into their own hands to get their phones back. Acting on infor- mation they obtained from a neighbor, they got in a car and tracked Ruth down to a convenience store on Hamlet Avenue. Ruth allegedly admitted that he had stolen the phones, but they were no longer in his possession – he’d already sold them to an unidentified “friend,” he told the couple. Incredulous, the woman’s husband accosted Ruth and began frisking him in search of the missing property, to no avail.
At that point Ruth made the couple an offer, telling them he’d try to meet up with the buyer and talk him into giving up the phones so they could be returned to them.
Ruth got in the car with the couple and led them back East School Street, where he asked them to pull over. Appearing to have spotted a familiar vehicle, Ruth exited the couple’s car and ran in the direction of Social Street, at which point he vanished.
Only then did the couple decide to contact the police to report the theft of their phones.
Based on his nickname and a physical description given to them by the couple, police developed Ruth as a suspect in the alleged burglary as soon as they took the complaint. A few minutes later, they located James outside a bar on Rathbun Street and placed him under arrest.
He did have a cell phone in his possession, but it wasn’t an iPhone and he was allowed to keep it, according to police reports.
According to the judiciary’s web site, Ruth has been arrested on at least half a dozen occasions since 2016 on charges that include domestic assaults, possession of a controlled substance and passing counterfeit bills.