Video surveillance leads to arrests in burglaries
Published 6:00 am Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Brookhaven Police Department officials say it is undeterminedyet whether three men arrested late last week on six counts ofburglary each are also responsible for any of the vehicle break-insthat have occurred around town in recent months.
Assistant Chief Nolan Jones said Joshua Scott Martin, 17, of 306East Meadowbrook Drive; Gerald B. Nugent, 17, of 1362 Union St.Apt. 15C; and Donald James Bessenette, of 1362 Union St. Apt. 16B,were all arrested last week and charged with six counts of burglaryand one count of attempted burglary in a string of break-ins thatoccurred since the beginning of November.
He said the trio had broken into the Brookhaven Moose Lodgetwice, the offices of Graceland Buildings and Brookhaven PortableBuildings, Select Signs, and the concession stand at the baseballpark at Lipsey Middle School, all since Nov. 4. They also attemptedto enter Dude’s Biscuits through a broken rear window, but wereunsuccessful. He said it was a tip from a security camera thatfinally cemented the deal for investigators.
“We viewed a surveillance video from one of the locations,”Jones said. “We were able to determine one subject from that, andthat led to the other two.”
Jones said police were sure all the burglaries were connected,but simply didn’t have any clear suspects until the surveillancetape.
In the weekend since the three were arrested, no vehicleburglaries and only one residential burglary were reported. Jonessaid there is no evidence at this point to tie Martin, Nugent andBessenette to any of the car break-ins that have popped up aroundthe city lately.
“It’s still under investigation, but at this point we have notconnected them to anything else,” he said.
Meanwhile, police are also investigating an armed robbery thattook place around lunchtime Monday at Lincoln Inn and Suites.Officials said two suspects used a gun to hold up the worker behindthe counter and take an undisclosed amount of money.
Anyone who might know anything about the robbery at Lincoln Innand Suites is urged to call Brookhaven Police Department at601-833-2424 or Lincoln County Crimestoppers at 601-823-0150.