Robbery at Brother’s Pizza Gets Schools Lock Down
The high school and middle school were locked down about 9 a.m. Friday when the owner of nearby Brother’s Pizza, 1734 Lakeview Ave., was robbed and two suspects fled into some nearby woods.
The suspects, with coats over their faces, approached the shop owner as he was unlocking the front door and grabbed his briefcase, which contained an undisclosed amount of cash.
Police are looking for two white men in their late teens. One man was wearing dark clothing and other was wearing light clothing.
No weapons were shown.
Update:
Pelham teen was one of three people charged as a result of an armed robbery of the owner of a Dracut pizza parlor after beating him repeatedly with a wooden stick, police said.
As police waited to execute a search warrant on the home of one of the suspects, the juvenile accomplice and an accessory to the crime happened upon the property and were arrested on the spot.
Jeremy Hogan, 17, of 1 Land Road in Pelham turned himself in to both Dracut and Pelham police on Monday, May 12, after a search of his home after the incident on Friday, May 9, turned up the burnt remnants of a briefcase stolen from the owner of Brother’s Pizza on Lakeview Ave.
Also arrested during the investigation’s course were Justin Hayes, 19, of Hudson, who was charged with accessory after the fact and an unnamed 16-year-old from Dracut, an accomplice in the robbery.
Alicia Beauregard, 18, of Pelham was also arrested while Pelham police searched Hogan’s home, but was not charged in connection with the robbery. She was charged with with misdemeanor possession of marijuana and felony possession of Vicodin.
Dracut and Pelham police collaborated on the case to make the arrests, with Dracut dealing with the crime scene and Pelham obtaining and executing the search warrant for Hogan’s home, which turned up not only the remnants of the briefcase but also about 400 prescription painkillers and a half-pound of marijuana.
The $6,000 that was inside the briefcase when it was taken had not been recovered as of Monday, May 19, according to Pelham police Lt. Gary Fisher.
Just before 9:30 a.m. on Friday, May 9, Dracut police responded to Brother’s Pizza on the armed robbery call. The owner had heard a knock on the back door, and thinking it was a delivery person, opened it to two masked men who entered and proceeded to assault him with a wooden stick, then took the briefcase with them.
Dracut schools in the area were put on lockdown for a short period of time, according to a statement from Dracut police Deputy Chief David Chartrand, until it was determined that the robbers had fled the scene.
The owner told police at the time that he believed he knew one of the masked men to be Hogan, who had worked at Brother’s Pizza for a few weeks and had recently stopped showing up for work, Fisher said.
After obtaining a search warrant through Salem District Court Judge John Korbey, Pelham police searched Hogan’s home. Hogan was not present at the time, Fisher said.
As Fisher waited for the warrant to be approved, he sat in an unmarked police car at the bottom of the driveway close to the home, a car containing Hayes, Beauregard and the Dracut juvenile pulled into the driveway.
“Once they were up that driveway, they were committed,” Fisher said. Pelham police charged Hayes with possession of a prescription drug, a misdemeanor, and Beauregard with misdemeanor possession of marijuana and felony possession of Vicodin.
The drugs found in Hogan’s home during the search led Pelham police to charge him with two counts of possession of prescription drugs, felony possession of marijuana with intent to distribute and receiving stolen property.
Dracut police charged Hogan and the juvenile with armed robbery and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, both felonies. Hayes was charged with being an accessory after the fact.
After being arraigned in Lowell District Court on Tuesday, May 13, both Hogan and Hayes have pretrial sessions scheduled in Lowell District Court for Wednesday, July 9. Both of them, along with Beauregard, will answer to their Pelham drug charges in Salem District Court on Monday, June 9.
May 9th, 2008 at 10:43 am
Robbery at Brother’s Pizza Gets Schools Lock Down. You were first to publish this information. Thank you.
May 9th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
Isn’t the town supposed to use the call notification system to inform the town about these types of events?
If you not registered do it now:
http://www.dracut-ma.us/
What is the Connect-CTY service?
The Connect-CTY service allows authorized civic leaders to create and rapidly disseminate time-sensitive messages to every telephone number stored in the notification database. With the Connect-CTY service, authorized users can send thousands of messages in minutes. Only authorized officials are allowed access to the system.
May 13th, 2008 at 2:28 am
Wonder how much they took? That sucks man I like that place.
May 20th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Uh oh… catching right up to Swill! Better watch out Dracut.