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amlico County Sheriff’s Department has made an arrest in five break-ins and larcenies around Oriental in recent weeks.

Investigator Bobby Baker says that 43-year-old Oriental resident Stanley Boone was arrested after a search of his home on Sunday night revealed items taken from five break-ins. Boone faces five counts of breaking and entering, five counts of larceny and five counts of possession of stolen property.

Sign outside The Silos Monday. The restaurant had been broken in to twice before the owners installed a security camera system. This weekend, during a third break-in, the camera helped get evidence that led to the arrest of Stanley Boone.

Those charges stem from break-ins at the Circle 10 Art Gallery and at Oriental Sailmakers and three break-ins at the Silos Restaurant.

All three businesses are within a block or two of Boone’s home.

Silos Camera Investment Helps Break Case

At the Silos Restaurant, owners Keri and Doug Delisle says approximately $900 in steaks and shrimp were stolen, along with cash from the registers.

After reporting their second break-in on November 1, the Delisles spent $800 — and a day’s labor — on security cameras for their restaurant. Keri Delisle said Monday that she and her husband intentionally did not reinforce the doors to the restaurant, but instead waited to see if the burglar showed up again, this time on camera.

That tactic appears to have worked.

After the Silos closed this past Saturday night, November 14, someone broke in to the restaurant. Once again, steaks and shrimp were stolen, along with some cash. Two of the four security cameras were also ripped from the wall and taken, but not before the cameras had already recorded the intruder’s image. And as Keri Delisle noted, whoever took the cameras “didn’t take the black recording box” on which the images were stored.

The recordings, she says, indicate that the burglar spent an hour in the restaurant, and returned for a second visit. Those photos gave the sheriff’s investigators grounds to get a search warrant for Stanley Boone’s home at 814 Midyette Street. Investigator Baker says that his department had already been watching Boone after receiving tips from informants in the last week. The photographic evidence from the Silos’ cameras, Baker added, “sure helped” and “made it easier” to get the warrant that led to Boone’s arrest.

Few Items Recovered, Though Enough To Make Arrest

Among the recovered items: Wally Chapin’s baby bracelet.(Photo: Pamlico County Sheriff’s Department.)

At Boone’s home Baker says they found the two cameras taken from The Silos, the cash box from Circle 10 and a leather pouch that Wally Chapin said was among the items stolen from his sail loft. The pouch had held two rings Chapin inherited from his father. While those were not recovered, his “baby bracelet,” – blue beads and letters spelling CHAPIN – was. (Wally says the hospital where he was born put it on his arm 61 years ago; his mother kept it for decades and a few years ago gave it to Wally.)

As for the Silos, Keri Delisle said that even if all $900 worth of steaks and shrimp had been recovered, the restaurant couldn’t use them for food safety reasons.

Break-Ins Both Inside and Outside Oriental’s Border

The five break-ins for which Boone was arrested occurred just outside the Oriental town limits. (As Wally Chapin points out, the fence between his parking lot and Paul Welles Triton Boat Yard is the town line.) As such, the crimes fell under the jurisdiction of the county sheriff’s department and technically were not the territory for the Oriental police.

There also had been several break-ins in the past two months inside the Oriental town limits. Oriental Police Chief Jeff Casassa says Mac’s Mini-Mart was hit twice and lottery tickets taken. A computer was stolen from the front desk of Village Health and Fitness. Cash and liquor were taken from The Steamer Restaurant. And an SUV was stripped in the Steamer parking lot.

Yet despite the similarities in the crimes, the sheriff’s department and Oriental’s chief had not been proactively coordinating or closely comparing notes on the cases. Baker said the Pamlico County sheriff, Billy Sawyer, tried to contact Oriental’s Police Chief Monday by phone.

Almost 24 hours after Stanley Boone’s initial arrest, Investigator Baker drove to Oriental Monday night to find Oriental’s Police Chief in order to see Casassa’s reports of his cases. Baker said he wanted to “delve in to” them and see if items reported missing in Oriental’s break-ins matched items found in Boone’s home.

A return visit to Boone’s home Monday night turned up 5 bank bags that Baker and Casassa said matched a description of those reported stolen from The Steamer Restaurant. The money — approximately $2,000 — was not recovered. Baker told TownDock Monday night that he was preparing to add the Steamer case to the list of charges against Boone.

Chief Casassa said Monday night that the search of Boone’s home may also have recovered items from some older cases — break-ins at a store and a home a block away from Boone’s home.

Sheriff’s Department Takes Over All Cases Now

Stanley Boone was being held in the jail in Bayboro in lieu of $50,000 bail. His arraignment is set for Friday.

Casassa said he had a training session in Beaufort County on Tuesday and would be out of town on Wednesday as well. It would be Thursday, the police chief told TownDock, before he could work on any possible links between Boone and the Oriental break-ins.

Contacted shortly afterward, investigator Baker with the sheriff’s department said that he had taken over the all of the Oriental cases from Casassa. The sheriff’s department, Baker said, “doesn’t know no town limits.”

Because of prior convictions, Baker says that Boone could fall under the Habitual Felon provison. He quoted Boone as saying that a judge told him if he were arrested again, he’d face 400 months in prison.

Posted Tuesday November 17, 2009 by Melinda Penkava