WATERTOWN, Mass. — He is twenty-four, homeless, and has issues walking. But Jonathan Quintanilla has managed to rack up a criminal history nine pages long, prosecutors say.
Tuesday, Quintanilla added a few more entries to that list. Police say he is their suspect in a series of burglary attempts in Watertown over the weekend that targeted houses on Sidney and Pearl Streets.
Those houses each have doorbell cameras — which caught clear images early last Sunday morning of a man appearing to try his luck at finding an unlocked door.
Those images led to Quintanilla’s arrest — even as he is immersed in a similar criminal case in Cambridge.
Quintanilla was arraigned in Waltham District Court on three charges of Attempt to Commit a Crime — Breaking and Entering at Night. He pleaded not guilty and was ordered held on bail — and held for 90 days over a similar criminal case in Cambridge.
One of Quintanilla’s alleged victims spoke with Boston 25 News, her identity hidden. She said that according to her ring camera, a man tried to break into her house at 1:30 Sunday morning, while the entire family was sleeping upstairs. That same man also attempted to break into the other side of the two-family house, she said, and was caught on her neighbor’s doorbell camera.
“He very clearly had his face in the camera,” she said. “But he did cover his hand with his t-shirt when he tried the door knob. As though he’d be avoiding fingerprints.”
The homeowner found that somewhat amusing, given the clear images caught by the doorbell camera.
While the burglar could not get into the house, it appears he did steal a purse from the homeowner’s car.
“It sort of has everything you need in it, right,” she said. “I have health cards to replace... and Medflex cards and insurance cards and credit cards and my professional license was in there. It has to be replaced.”
What the homeowner didn’t have in the purse was money — so she assumes the burglar ultimately disposed of it.
Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts.
Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW
©2024 Cox Media Group
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/cmg/7QOJU3BNCJERBNKJC5LWTBYFLU.png)
