By Jim Clark

Somerville Police officers were dispatched to a Minnesota Ave. location last week on reports of a person breaking into motor vehicles.

Police dispatch informed responding units that the suspect was walking up Minnesota Ave. heading towards Broadway and supplied a partial description.

As officers were arriving in the area and turning onto Minnesota Ave. from Broadway, they encountered the suspect, later identified as Christian Mercedes, who matched the provided description.

The officers immediately exited their cruiser to speak with Mercedes and asked him where he was coming from. He stated that he was walking down the street and when asked if he was in anyone’s yard, he stated that he was just urinating.

The officers noted that Mercedes’ pockets were all bulging as if items were stuffed into them.

Mercedes denied going into any vehicles and kept stating that he just wanted to go home. He said that he was coming from Davis Square, but he missed the last bus so he was walking home towards Everett.

During the interaction with Mercedes, police reportedly noted he was fidgety and kept moving around. Because of this, they placed him in handcuffs for officer safety and patted him down for any weapons. Due to his pockets being so bulgy, some items had to be removed from his pockets to properly clear them.

The reporting party stated that he was alerted via a camera app on his phone at approximately 2:00 a.m. that there was some motion in his drive way. On camera, Mercedes was shown checking the door handle to his vehicle. He then reportedly left the reporting party’s driveway and checked another vehicle’s door handle. The reporting party looked out his window and watched what Mercedes was doing. He reportedly observed Mercedes walk in the general area of his house and then get into a black Dodge Ram pickup truck. He exited the vehicle a short time later. Mercedes then walked down Minnesota Ave. and went into a back yard under construction. He was then observed walking onto Pennsylvania Ave. and then returned to Minnesota Ave. heading towards Broadway.

Police then spoke with the owner of the pickup truck, who stated that his vehicle was parked in front of his house and it was unlocked. When officers alerted him that his vehicle was broken into and asked to check to see if anything was missing, he realized that a check for $5,000 was missing along with some losing scratch tickets.

Inside Mercedes’ bulging pockets was the losing scratch tickets and the check for $5,000. Also in Mercedes’ pockets were two coin purses with $11 in one and $31.54 in the other. Loose bills and coins totaling $197.25 along with eight pairs of headphones and a watch were also discovered.

Mercedes was subsequently placed under arrest on charges of attempt to commit a crime and felony nighttime breaking and entering of a vehicle or boat.