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Man accused of making himself at home in another person’s South End house
Police said the homeowner was tipped off after he heard footsteps inside his house.
Boston police arrested an alleged home intruder Sunday morning after a South End resident reported hearing unusual footsteps inside his house.
The strange noise upstairs tipped the homeowner off, as did the sight of a bag parked out front and an unfamiliar man standing at the bottom of the staircase leading up to the entrance, according to a police report.
“I was eating breakfast with my children — they’re 4 years old and 6 years old — and I looked outside and saw the belongings of someone who doesn’t have a home and didn’t belong in my home,” homeowner Matthew Hammond told Boston 25 News, which first reported the incident. “As far as we know, he could’ve been in the house every night for three weeks.”
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Officers responded to the reported break-in on Pembroke Street around 7:11 a.m. and caught up with the supposed interloper, later identified as 43-year-old Alonzo Poole. According to the police report, Poole told authorities he had keys to the apartment.
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Officers took Poole into custody after discovering he had warrants out for his arrest in separate cases involving charges of assault and battery on a household member and an abuse prevention order violation.
Investigators also learned that a key to Hammond’s Pembroke Street home had recently vanished from an exterior lockbox meant for construction crews, according to the police report. While gathering Poole’s belongings, an officer allegedly located a key to the apartment matching the one that had gone missing.
Poole pleaded not guilty to a charge of breaking and entering during the daytime with intent to commit a felony. Court records indicate he was ordered committed to Suffolk County Jail in lieu of posting $750 cash bail.
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Poole is due back in court Aug. 19. It was not immediately clear whether he had an attorney who could comment on the charge.
The incident on Pembroke Street comes just weeks after an alleged intruder broke into another South End home while the residents were away on vacation. Police said the woman bathed, ate, and rearranged items inside the Worcester Square home before eventually taking off with thousands of dollars in handbags and jewelry.
Authorities identified the purported squatter as a woman who had been arrested the day prior in an attempted break-in one block away.
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