Police: Armed Riverhead duo was targeting Mattituck houses
Two Riverhead men, one of whom was armed with a loaded revolver and has a long history of arrests, were apprehended in Laurel Friday morning after residents in Mattituck allegedly saw the men casing a neighborhood and trying to enter a house.
One of the men is facing a felony burglary charge after a woman said the man broke into her house and stole a bag of candy before leaving, according to a police statement.
Police said they were called to Pacific Street about 10 a.m. when a resident reported a man who had knocked on her door moments before was looking in her neighbor’s windows and trying to open the door.
Cops searched the area, and learned that the man had gotten into one of the homes and was confronted by a woman, according to a police statement. The man — later identified by police as 46-year-old Kenneth Belcher — asked the woman for money, but she refused.
After she told him she couldn’t help him, he took a bag of Snickers candy bars and left the house.
Police located Mr. Belcher and 88-year-old Willie James Blackmon leaving the area on Main Road in Laurel and arrested them during a traffic stop, according to the report.
Police said they found the loaded gun inside the Cadillac sedan they were in.
Mr. Belcher was charged with felony burglary, two counts of criminal possession of a weapon, and criminal possession of stolen property, police said.
Mr. Blackmon was charged with one count felony criminal possession of a weapon.
Mr. Belcher had been arrested numerous times prior to Friday’s alleged incident on charges ranging from resisting arrest earlier this month to giving a false name to police to avoid getting arrested on an active warrant in 2011, according to previous News-Review articles.
The two men are being held pending arraignment in Southold Town court, according to the report.