Crime & Safety

Chase Leads to Stoneham Man's Arrest for Breaking and Entering in Wakefield

Wakefield Police pieced together information from the victim and witnesses to arrest a Stoneham man on a breaking and entering charge on Monday afternoon.

A Stoneham man was arrested for allegedly breaking into a Wakefield home on Monday afternoon, according to Wakefield Police. 

Police arrested Cory Ash, 22, of Stoneham, on a house break and a larceny charge after he was tracked to his Stoneham home by Wakefield detectives.

Around 3 p.m. on Monday, police were called to an Albion Street residence for a report of breaking and entering into a home. The victim told police that he had returned home after being gone for a few hours to find a male intruder inside his home, on the second floor. The victim said that a backback and a bedroom had been ransacked. 

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The victim chased the suspect out of his home and onto the street, and the suspect took off running down West Street, the victim told police.

The suspect was described as a white male, 6 feet tall with brown hair and brown eyes, wearing cargo pants and carrying a hammer.

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Witnesses help make arrest
Police said several neighbors witnessed Ash running up West Street and enter a white Jeep that had been parked there. A neighbor had previously watched Ash pull up and park on the road, which seemed suspicious to her because it was a dead end and no one usually parks there, she told police. The witness told police she had seen Ash walk up to one house, ring the doorbell, try the knob, and move on to another house, which also seemed suspicious to her, so once he left the area she went out and wrote down his license plate. 

It was a few minutes later that the same witness saw Ash sprinting back to his Jeep and jump in and drive away, police said. 

"That's how we were able to track him to his address in Stoneham," said Lieutenant Craig Calabrese of the Wakefield Police Department. "This was a good combination of police work but also alert citizens seeing suspicious activity and writing down plate numbers. All of that definitely helped greatly in the arrest and solving the case."

When police arrived at the suspect's Stoneham address, they said they found Ash inside who matched the description of the suspect. Police said they also located the hammer that was seen by the victim on Albion Street. 

Ash was taken into custody and charged with breaking and entering in the daytime and larceny under $250 out of Malden District Court. 


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