By Jim Clark

Somerville Police officers were dispatched to the Food Mart store on Broadway in the early hours of last Sunday on reports of a breaking and entering.

The reporting party provided a description of the suspect to police dispatch, which was then relayed to the responding officers as they were on the way.

Upon arrival, the officers were hailed by the reporting party from the window of her apartment across the street from the store, and told them that the suspect had fled down Dartmouth St. The store was closed for business and there was no one inside managing it.

Police soon apprehended the suspect, identified as Mike Bento, of Everett, at a Dartmouth St. location. The arresting officers observed many cash bills scattered in the front yard of a Dartmouth St. residence, along with a hammer.

Officers spoke to the reporting party, who told them that she observed a man with a stick-like object in one hand banging on the entrance glass door of the store, causing it to break. She watched the male crawl into the store through the bottom of the broken door. He eventually came out and then headed towards Dartmouth St.

The reporting party agreed to do a show-up, during which she positively identified Bento as the individual she saw at the store.

Officers on the scene observed that the glass door at the store entrance looked cracked like a spider web, mainly at its bottom. There was a bunch of lottery tickets inside by the door.

The store owner was notified of the incident and said he would respond to the store.

The officers recovered twenty-five one-dollar bills and ten five-dollar bills for a total of 75 dollars. A black shirt with a gold illustration and a Hickory Rip handle hammer were also recovered.

Once inside the store, the owner and the officers observed that both cash registers were open. The owner stated that the keys were left attached to them and that cash was left inside. There was no longer any cash inside the registers.

The owner showed surveillance video of the entrance of the store to police. The video showed a man walking inside the store after breaking the door. It also showed the man heading to the cash registers, where they are opened and emptied.

Bento was subsequently placed under arrest on charges of breaking into depository, malicious wanton defacement of property, felony nighttime breaking and entering, larceny under $1200, and possession of a burglarious instrument.

He was transported to the Somerville Police Station and booked on the above charges.