Did the burglar return to the scene of the crime?

WEST CHESTER » Why do some criminals return to the scene of their crimes?

Is it out of remorse? Are they hoping to find some way to make things right again? Are they hoping to relive the strange excitement they enjoyed during the commission of the crime? Checking to see if the police have discovered what they had done?

Or did they just drop something they needed, like their car keys?

Robert Rollision Reed may be able to answer the last question. The Delaware man was charged on Oct. 31 with burglary, criminal trespass, criminal mischief, and institutional vandalism after he was apprehended in a West Chester University classroom building that is closed to the public by police who were searching for a person who broke open the doors to an adjacent building on the campus, most of which is closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

When taken into custody, Reed was found to have two items in his possession — a nylon lanyard and a distinctive cloth face mask — that the primary investigator had half-an-hour before allegedly spotted at the scene of the earlier break-in.

WCU police speculated in a criminal complaint against Reed that he had dropped the items when he tried to enter the first building, then ran from police as they discovered the burglary. While they investigated, however, he went back to the scene of the break-in, and picked up the items that police had left there.

Reed, 33, of Hartly, Del., was arraigned by Magisterial District Judge Albert Iacocca of Kennett Square following his arrest and released on 10 percent of $10,000 bail. A preliminary hearing is set for Nov. 24.

According to the arrest affidavit filed by WCU Sgt. Eric D. Ruggeri, he was dispatched to investigate a possible burglary at the Old Main Library building on South Church Street around 7:30 a.m. on Oct. 31. When he arrived, Ruggeri saw a broken glass door panel on the building.

On the ground at the foot of the door was a Harrington Raceway and casino face mask and a lanyard with “America’s Navy” printed on it with a black car key fob attached.

He checked inside the building, but found no one, and met up with Officer Shane Hall, who came to assist. While searching the scene, the pair saw a man with a blue hooded sweatshirt on surveillance cameras attempting to open doors at the nearby Recitation Hall. On the way to the adjacent building, Ruggeri spotted someone running away.

At 8:10 a.m., while still on foot, Ruggeri spotted the man again, this time running into Anderson Hall, also on South Church Street. He ordered the man to stop, which he did and was taken into custody. The man identified himself as Reed, who was determined to not be a student.

Reed told Ruggeri that he had lost his wallet on the campus overnight and was looking for it in the building. But when he was searched, Ruggeri found the same face mask and lanyard he had noticed and taken a photograph outside the library earlier. It appeared to him that when he was inside the Old Library, Reed came back for those items, took them, and ran away, he wrote in the complaint.

When police checked surveillance footage later from the library, Reed allegedly can be seen breaking the door window and entering, according to the complaint.