LEOMINSTER — An Ashby man, who is a convicted felon and free on bail after allegedly breaking into a Rindge Road home in Fitchburg in March, was arrested in June for allegedly breaking into the commercial office building on Erdman Way, causing significant damage and stealing a number of items, according to police and court documents.
Police were called to 100 Erdman Way on Sunday, May 10, when an alarm went off in the offices used by Mount Wachusett Community College, police said.
When the first officers arrived and began searching through the building, they found that nearly every locked office door in the building had been damaged by someone attempting to get inside, police said.
They also found large holes in the drywall between offices large enough for someone to crawl through, police said.
Police also recovered a fingerprint from inside one of the businesses that had been broken into, police said.
A detective visited the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel in an attempt to learn if there was any surveillance footage that might help identify a suspect, police said.
The detective, based on past experiences, thought that Damon Wuth, 38, of 27 Mill Creek Drive, might be a suspect and while speaking with an employee of the hotel asked if Wuth had been a resident and found that he had been.
A check of the surveillance footage of those entering and leaving the hotel showed Wuth and a woman going in and out four times on the morning of May 10 and on one occasion carrying two bags, one that appeared that it might have a box of computer tablets reported as missing from one of the offices in the building, police said.
On May 13, the State Police Crime Lab reported that the fingerprint that was lifted from inside the building came back as Wuth’s left index finger, police said.
With a positive identification of the suspect, a warrant for Wuth’s arrest was issued charging him with six counts of felony breaking and entering and three counts of malicious destruction of property for more than $1,200, police said.
The report indicates Wuth was arrested at some point before June 25. When he was arraigned, he was ordered held in lieu of a $5,000 cash bail, which was lowered to $4,000 after it was appealed to Superior Court, according to court documents.
Wuth posted the bail and was released to home confinement and ordered to wear a GPS tracking device, according to court documents.
However, bail was revoked when Wuth appeared in district court last week and he was ordered held for violating the conditions of his probation, according to court documents.
He will return to court on Dec. 9 for a probable cause hearing.
On June 1, Fitchburg Police completed the investigation into a break-in on Rindge Road and summonsed Wuth to court on a single charge of felony breaking and entering.
Wuth, who pleaded not guilty, was arraigned on June 11, released after posting $1,000 cash bail and ordered to stay away from the home involved in the theft, according to court records.
In the investigative report of the alleged breaking and entering on Rindge Road, it was noted that there were 62 entries on Wuth’s Board of Probation record (it lists all charges and convictions of a particular person), which included eight convictions for breaking and entering, seven convictions for knowingly receiving stolen property, eight convictions on various firearm-related offenses, and convictions for larceny, possession of burglary tools, possession to distribute heroin, and that he had been a fugitive from justice on three occasions.
The report also said Wuth had an open burglary charge out of New Hampshire.
