Foot Pursuit Ends When Alleged Thief from Malden Crashes into Woman's Car

By Mark Ouellette

A Malden man accused of stealing from church donation boxes led Stoneham police on a brief foot pursuit Wednesday morning that came to a halt when he ran into the side of a woman's car near Stop & Shop Supermarket, according to police.

Ronald Giroux, 35, of Malden, was arrested on two warrants charging him with breaking and entering and receiving stolen property, as well as on charges for disorderly conduct and larceny from a building, according to Stoneham Police Chief James McIntyre.

"There were two donation boxes at St. (Patrick Parish) which had been broken into," McIntyre said on Wednesday, adding that one theft occurred on July 26 and the other on July 29. "St. Pat's church was able to provide some video images of the suspect. Det. (Robert) McKinnon, who was working on the case, provided the images to all the police officers and distributed them to other towns to see if they could (identify) the suspect.

"Today (around 10 a.m.), Det. Paul Norton was working a paid detail on Lindenwood Road next to Stop & Shop, and Det. (Christopher) Dalis stopped by to talk to him about something and Det. Norton happened to look over and saw the suspect walking down Lindenwood Road, passed the two of them and recognized him as the suspect from the video."

Both detectives approached the suspect, identified themselves and asked if they could speak to him at which time the suspect took off running, according to McIntyre.

"The suspect ran across the four lanes of Main Street toward the Mobil Station, causing traffic to come to a screeching halt," McIntyre said. "He came back toward Stop & Shop again and when he ran through the parking lot at Stop & Shop, he happened to run into the side of a lady's car at which time our guys were able to take him into custody."