The following is a brief summary of the incident. It does not contain every minute detail of the arrest. On 11/14/2015, while assigned to Patrol duties in Car E-2, in full uniform, I was dispatched to DeMoulas Market, 400 Somerville Ave, to assist Sgt. Gobiel with a Larceny of a Pocketbook report that had just occurred inside the store. As I was proceeding to the call, Sgt. Gobiel reported that he may have a Suspect located on Somerville Ave. directly opposite DeMoulas Market. The location would be in front of 383 Somerville Ave. at the bus stop. Upon my arrival, I met Sgt. Gobiel at the above location. He was interacting with a male and female. The female would later be identified as the Suspect in the Larceny from the Person, to wit: a Pocketbook. Sgt. Gobiel had detained the following suspect/defendant: Meghan D. Thomas. He also detained a male who was later identified as XXXXX.

 

After several minutes of the defendant stating that she could get back the stolen pocketbook, I took out my Miranda Card and advised her of her Miranda Rights. Sgt. Gobiel was speaking to the defendant when I returned to DeMoulas and requested to view the surveillance tapes of the incident with the Night Manager. After viewing the tapes, I observed the defendant walk over to the Lottery table where a pocketbook was placed down by the victim, YYYYY. I observed the defendant walk away from the lottery table and converse with XXXXXX. The defendant walked away from XXXXX and went directly to the lottery table where the pocketbook was. XXXXX proceeds to walk out of the store. The defendant picks up the pocketbook and walks out of the store. While the tapes were being played, I invited YYYYY upstairs to the Mgr’s Office to view the tapes of the incident. As the defendant walks back to the lottery table the 2nd time, grabs the pocketbook, turns, and starts to walk toward the store exit, YYYYY observes the pocketbook the defendant now has in her possession and yells out the following: “That’s my pocketbook, my sister just bought it for me, see the silver buckle in front, there’s my keys hanging out in front. That’s my pocketbook.” I asked YYYYY how sure she was and she stated 100% sure that the pocketbook the defendant had in her possession was her pocketbook.

 

With that information and observations, I went back to Sgt. Gobiel’s location. I spoke directly to the defendant and stated the following: “I just finished watching the tapes of the incident and can positively identify you as stealing the pocketbook.” The defendant kept saying to me that she could get the pocketbook back if I let her go get her friend. Her friend allegedly had the pocketbook in his possession. I kept telling her that that was not going to happen. While I was conversing about the retrieval of the pocketbook, the defendant was reaching inside the inner chest pocket of her purple and black coat. I told her to take her hands out of the pocket now. My concern was for Officer Safety issues due to the fact that I did not know what she was reaching for. I told her once again to get her hands out of the jacket pocket. She stated that she was just reaching for some credit cards that she took out of the pocketbook. She wanted to give them back. The defendant proceeded to hand me the 3 credit cards. After receiving the 3 cards from the defendant, I asked her if her name was either YYYYY or ZZZZZ. The defendant stated that her name was Meghan Thomas. I asked her where she got the credit cards and she stated from the pocketbook that she took. At this time I advised the defendant that she was under arrest for the crime of Larceny from the Person, to wit: the Pocketbook. She was transported to the Station via Prisoner Transport Vehicle #200, operated by Off. M. Cabral Jr, where Lt. DiGregorio booked and advised her of her Rights.

 

I spoke to Sgt. Gobiel regarding the incident that occurred inside DeMoulas while he was on detail. He stated that he was approached by YYYYY regarding the missing pocketbook that was left on the lottery table by the Courtesy Booth. After listening to her story, he proceeded to the Manager’s Office to view the surveillance tapes of the alleged incident. Sgt. Gobiel stated that he observed the defendant steal the pocketbook on the surveillance system tapes. At this point, he began searching the immediate vicinity for the female suspect. He remembered the suspect as wearing a purple type outer coat. As he was searching the area of Somerville Ave, directly opposite DeMoulas Market, he observed the female suspect sitting in front of 383 Somerville Ave at the bus stop. She was sitting on a black wrought iron bench. She was wearing the distinctive purple outer coat. He realized immediately that this female was the same female involved in the Larceny of their Pocketbook from YYYYY. It was at this time that Sgt. Gobiel requested back-up to his location.

 

I spoke with the victim, YYYYY. She stated that she slipped and fell in the store and brought it to the attention of the Night Mgr. He asked YYYYY to fill out an incident report regarding her fall. She began writing out the incident report while seated at the lottery table, in the area of the Courtesy Booth. After filling out the report, she had to abruptly leave and go to the Ladies room. As she was exiting the Ladies room, she realized that she had left her pocketbook at the lottery table. She quickly made her way back to the lottery table and observed that her pocketbook was now missing. She alerted the Night Mgr. to this incident, who, in turn, notified Sgt. Gobiel. YYYYY stated that she had been gone from the lottery table for a total of 5-6 minutes.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

 

Off. James McNally #80

Somerville Police Dept.