By Larry Barszewski
A pair of oceanfront homes were burglarized in April:
• A family residence in Ocean Ridge where the suspect stole at least $2,000 and made his way upstairs to a bedroom where a baby was sleeping;
• A vacant house in Manalapan on an ocean-to-Intracoastal Waterway lot, where one of the suspects told police he brought in a bed and had been squatting there for days.
Police made arrests in both the cases, including of a suspect in Manalapan who ran into the ocean and swam away. It took a few days to catch the Ocean Ridge suspect, who made a mostly clean getaway, but then returned to the area the following night — setting in motion the events that would lead police to his doorstep.
“This is very unusual,” Ocean Ridge Police Chief Richard Jones said of a burglary of an oceanfront home in his town. “It does not happen very often. I can only think of two or three in the last nine years.”
There were no known connections between the two break-ins, Jones said. “Every homeowner should take personal security seriously and lock their doors, set their alarm and call the police immediately when something suspicious occurs,” he said.
Family fright in Ocean Ridge
Ocean Ridge police arrested Zachary Jarod Herring, 20, of Boynton Beach, charging him with unarmed burglary of an occupied dwelling and larceny grand theft in the April 20 break-in shortly after midnight of the home with an address in the 6000s of North Ocean Boulevard, court documents show.
The homeowners were asleep in the house with three grandchildren, ages 6 and 3 years old, and 8 months old, unaware of the burglar. It was another family member, who was in Miami at the time, who received an alert and video triggered by a security camera that had been set up in the baby’s bedroom.
The video showed the burglar near the baby’s crib, while other house security video a short while later captured him fleeing out a side door, running across the back of the property and jumping off a 6-foot-high sea wall toward the beach to make his escape.
He appeared to be wearing a white hoodie, face mask and gloves. He had taken credit cards and cash from a purse in the butler’s pantry near the side door, police said.
A Boynton Beach police K-9 unit was unsuccessful in finding the suspect around the house and a Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office helicopter crew wasn’t able to spot him.
But the next night, a security guard stopped Herring for walking on the sea wall of the house next door to the burglarized home.
Ocean Ridge police came and conducted a field interview, with Herring telling them he had come to the beach on his bike to clear his head. He showed police where he had left his bike near the Edith Street crossover and they allowed him to leave after taking down his personal information.
The detective working the burglary case later determined that, after the burglary, the suspect had dragged a bicycle from behind the house to the Corrine Street beach crossover. A woman the next day found some dumped credit cards from the burglary near the crossover. The detective also realized the suspect and Herring had similar physiques.
With that information, the detective determined Herring was a suspect and went to his home to talk with him, only later finding him at his job. Herring was arrested after confessing to the crime, police said.
The report said he “went on to explain how he comes to this area a lot to admire the homes and he got the idea he might be able to go inside one. He stated he went into the home and when he saw children in the home he left.”
The family estimated $3,000 was taken. Herring told police he had taken about $2,000 and that he hadn’t spent the money. Police recovered $1,400 that Herring had on him and $615 he turned over to them at his home.
Manalapan squatter charged
Manalapan police were alerted to suspicious activity April 13 at a vacant house on the ocean and determined a burglary was in progress, Police Chief Carmen Mattox said in a report to town commissioners.
Two women were taken into custody in front of the house with an address in the 3000s of South Ocean Boulevard, a five-bedroom, 6.5-bath house that sold for $9.85 million last year and is slated for redevelopment.
Two male suspects fled and were apprehended with help from the Sheriff’s Office and police from Ocean Ridge and Lantana, with one of the men trying a water escape.
“Dispatch supervisor [Michelle] Mackey was monitoring the cameras during the event and observed one of the suspects on the beach,” Mattox wrote in his report to commissioners. “She notified the units on scene of the location and that the subject was in the ocean. The Sheriff’s Office helicopter located the suspect and followed him until he swam ashore and was taken into custody.”
The two men arrested were Reinaldo Chirino, 30, of Lake Worth, and Yoannes Aleman Jimenez, 45, of Palm Beach Gardens. Chirino told police he went into the house and had been living there for about three days, according to a copy of the police report filed in criminal court.
“During questioning, Chirino admitted to entering the residence through an unlocked door approximately three days prior,” the police report says. “Chirino stated he had smoked marijuana laced with cocaine inside the residence. Chirino stated he brought two box springs and mattress into the residence to sleep on.”
Police said the house’s northwest window had been forced open.
Chirino was charged with unarmed burglary of an unoccupied dwelling, possession of cocaine and resisting an officer without violence. Jimenez was charged with unarmed burglary of an unoccupied dwelling.
The women in front of the house, ages 35 and 33, were arrested on outstanding failure to appear charges, according to Sheriff’s Office jail
information.
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