This week on Weird and Wacky Wednesdays: Somebody’s Been Sleeping in My Bed
Last week our subjects typed their plans into a search bar and left a record for the police. This week’s subjects left no search history at all. They let themselves into homes that belonged to other people and then made themselves comfortable. The homeowners came back, or woke up, and found them there.
Anyone who grew up with the story of Goldilocks will recognize the pattern. The difference is that the three bears never had to call 911.
The bed
In August, a homeowner in Bangor, Maine, left for work and forgot to lock his door. When he came home, he found a stranger asleep in his bed. He called police a little after seven in the morning.
Darcelle Howard, 55, of Levant, is charged with burglary of a dwelling, criminal mischief, theft, and violating her conditions of release.
Later that same day, a Bangor property manager looked at the jail’s website, saw Howard’s booking photo, and recognized her. Police say she had come into his building on August 11, taken a resident’s clothing, and left a mess on the entryway rug.
A booking photo can be an investigative tool. In Bangor, the jail’s website apparently has regular readers.
The couch
Just before 11 p.m. on September 15, Hillsborough County deputies responded to a burglary in progress in Wimauma, Florida. According to the sheriff’s office, Erick Moreno, 26, first tried to pry open the front door of one home. He then went in through the back door of a second home while the family was inside.
Deputies found a bicycle outside that they believed was his. They entered through an open rear sliding door and found Moreno asleep on the couch. He was wearing the homeowner’s shoes.
The body camera video contains the best line of the week. A deputy asked the family whether a backpack in the room belonged to them. They said it did not, and a child can be heard saying, “Dad, somebody’s been in our house.”
A deputy then asked Moreno whether he lived there. Moreno said he did. The homeowner said he did not.
Moreno is charged with two counts of burglary of an occupied dwelling with a weapon, possessing burglary tools, resisting an officer without violence, and using a false identification card.
The bath
Early on the morning of September 22 in Castle Hills, Texas, a woman was woken by her dog. She could hear someone moving around inside her house, so she locked herself in her bedroom and called 911.
Officers cleared the house with her help. In the bathroom they found a man taking a bath.
Police say Richard Caraco got into the woman’s vehicle, took a spare house key from it, and used the key to let himself in. He then locked himself inside and ran a bath with her water. He was arrested and taken to the Bexar County Jail.
The Castle Hills Police Department used the occasion to remind residents to lock their vehicles every time, including when they are parked at home. A spare key in the car is a convenience for the owner. On this occasion it was a convenience for somebody else as well.
The duck
The Chatham County Police Department in Georgia is still looking for its suspect. Surveillance video from a home on Whitefield Avenue shows a man trespassing on the property between 2:15 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. on September 1. He took a swim in the pool and then moved to the hot tub, where, according to police, he spent more than ten minutes playing intensely with a rubber duck.
When he was finished, he rode away on a bicycle with the family’s beach towels in the front basket. Police valued the towels at $1,200.
The department admitted in its social media post that this was not the most serious crime it had dealt with that month. It still wants him found, because it would prefer he did not do the same thing at somebody else’s house.
Nobody has said what became of the duck.
I will see you next week. Knock first.
