A Worcester man stands accused of a daylight burglary after Worcester Police officers responded to a break-in report at a Belmont Street apartment complex. Yesterday, October 14, the ruckus of apparent thievery at Belmont Street coaxed the blue uniforms and sirens to a scene that was, until their arrival, under assault by one man's alleged criminal appetite.
Officers, tapping into the omnipresent eye of surveillance footage, witnessed a male figure—later identified as 43-year-old Rafael Gonzalez—surreptitiously open a window and slink through, supposedly in search of bounty. It's reported that he snatched a laptop and a purse—a commonplace but personal cache of someone's digital and financial lifelines.
Not long after, the suspect was spotted by the authorities pedaling his bike on Shrewsbury Street. What appeared to a casual observer as a leisurely ride was, for Gonzalez, a swift pivot to evasion. The officers observed as Gonzalez, upon noticing his pursuers, began to forcefully pedal, weaving through traffic in a brazen bid to slip the clutch of law enforcement. In the ensuing pursuit, Gonzalez reportedly discarded a backpack, which the police later recovered containing the laptop and some bolt cutters, according to an official statement from the Worcester Police Department.
Despite his efforts to outpace the law, Gonzalez was apprehended and placed under arrest. As for the contents of that abandoned backpack, apart from the proverbial tools of a break-in artist and the stolen laptop, the purse remained at large. Gonzalez is charged with an array of offenses including Breaking and Entering in the Daytime to Commit a Felony, Larceny from A Building, Possession of Burglarious Instruments, Resisting Arrest, and Disorderly Conduct.
