Police arrest 4 in burglary spree

Police arrested four people last week and recovered $10,000 worth of property stolen from more than a dozen homes in Brooklyn Park, Linthicum and Glen Burnie.

Detectives said the foursome were stashing televisions, jewelry, various electronics, CDs, DVDs, coin collections and safes at Joseph Douglas Wagner's home in the Sunnyfield Estates neighborhood, all taken in a string of crimes stretching back two months.

Police charged Wagner, 20, of the 700 block of Sunnyfield Lane, Timothy Edward Rinehults, 20, of the 100 block of Bonair Avenue, and Megan Marie Woodmancy, 21, of the 5700 block of Moore Street, and Kari Nicole Rund, 21 of Baltimore, with multiple counts of burglary, theft and malicious destruction of property.

A Sunnyfield Estates neighbor whose home was burglarized while he was on vacation between June 20 and 21 said the thieves made off with two basement safes filled with passports, property deeds and other important documents. Police found the safes with the paperwork inside and returned them.

"I'm at a Hard Rock Cafe and I get a call from police," said the man, who asked to remain anonymous. "I have to commend Anne Arundel County Police for recovering the safes so quickly."

Justin Mulcahy, a police spokesman, said all the burglaries occurred while the residents were away. An investigation is ongoing, with more arrests possible.

Police have linked the four to seven break-ins in Brooklyn Park, five in Linthicum and two in Glen Burnie in May and June.

Armed with warrants, officers raided Wagner's home June 23, found the stolen goods and arrested all four.

Detectives identified the group as suspects after they went to the GameStop store on Ritchie Highway on June 15 and tried to sell a PlayStation 3 reported stolen from a Glen Burnie home earlier that day, according to court documents.

The resident of the home on Louise Terrace told police someone had broken into his basement, damaging his door and taking the game console.

One June 16, the foursome allegedly broke in through a basement window of a Brooklyn Park residence and stole a credit card and other items.

Wagner, Woodmancy and Rinehults then tried to use the card to buy white T-shirts at J.B. Beauty Supply on Ritchie Highway, police said in charging documents.

The Sunnyfield Estates man, whose home was one of two in the neighborhood burglarized, said the thieves were surprisingly neat at his house.

Except for scratch marks on the basements steps where they dragged out the safes, the man said his house was barely damaged. The thieves appear to have entered through a bay window, but moved aside plants so as not to knock them over.

"Thank God you have courteous robbers, I guess," the homeowner said.

In addition to the safes, the thieves sole stole three watches, a gold coin and an LCD TV. The man believes they pawned those items, but he said they left behind plenty of other valuables.

"All my wife's jewelry, none of that was touched. They didn't take her diamond ring," he said. "They didn't take any DVDs, credit cards, cash."

A Linthicum Heights woman, who also asked not to be identified, said the burglars hit her home on June 15 when she was at work.

When she arrived home about 5:45 p.m. she found her door hanging off its frame. Some closets were left open, and she could tell someone had rifled through her drawers. Nothing major was damaged.

"I was overwhelmed by how they didn't tear up things," the woman said.

The thieves took two new TVs, a 15-inch and a 19-inch, and about $500 worth of gift cards the woman was saving for upcoming birthdays and Christmas.

Earlier that week, two cars belonging to the woman's next door neighbor were burglarized, though it's not clear if it was the same thieves involved in that crime.

"I've lived here since 1978, and things just weren't like this then," the woman said.