A 20-year-old Ortonville man was arrested last week following a crime spree he went on to feed his $150-a-day heroin habit.
The man was expected to be arraigned in 52-2 District Court on charges including burglary from several area businesses and larceny. A second man, a 20-year-old Groveland Township resident, was also expected to be arraigned in the crimes.
According to Brandon substation police reports, a deputy was dispatched to Bullfrogs, 2225 Ortonville Road around 8:15 a.m. on Sept. 29 to take a report of burglary of a business by force. An employee of the restaurant had arrived for work and observed a suspect in a green Explorer with several cases of empty beer bottles and two kegs in his vehicle leaving the business. The employee wrote down the plate number, found a storage shed behind the business broken into and called deputies, who drove to the address of the Ortonville man, listed as the vehicle’s owner.
Later the same day, a Brandon deputy was sent to a home in the 900 block of Kent Road to take a report of a home invasion. The homeowner reported the Groveland man had come by that morning looking for her son. Her son is not allowed to associate with the man anymore because of the suspect’s drug use, she told the deputy. The suspect was driving the green Explorer belonging to the Ortonville man. She left the house between 8:30 and 8:45 a.m., locking everything. When she arrived home, she found another son’s X-Box and three games missing.
On Oct. 3, a Brandon deputy was dispatched to O’Malley’s Restaurant, 1595 S. Ortonville Road, for a report of larceny. Owner Dennis O’Malley told the deputy two empty beer kegs and two shelving units worth $400 were taken from the rear of his building.
Brandon Detective Brad Teague found the Ortonville man at another local restaurant that same day and asked him to come to the substation for questioning. The man was told he was on video stealing bottles from the Pine Knob Golf Course and a Clark gas station, and after an Independence Township detective was called in, the suspect broke down and said he was a heroin addict with a $150-a-day habit. He admitted he and the Groveland Township man took the items from O’Malley’s, as well as admitting to stealing from the Liberty Golf Course, Pine Knob Golf Course and Clark’s. In a written statement, the man said he knew what he did was wrong.
‘I’m sorry,? he wrote. ‘It came down to having to get right the wrong way. I need help that I could not get myself.?
The man’s father also filed a larceny complaint Oct. 3, stating his son had stolen firearms from people he knew and when he checked on his own guns, he found them missing. A jewelry box had also been emptied of gold necklaces, earrings, bracelets and coins.
Oakland County Sheriff’s Office Brandon Substation Sgt. Tim McIsaac said the number of addicts committing crimes has increased in the six years he has been in Brandon.
‘They’re stealing to support their drug habit and are often in their late teens, which is scary,? said McIsaac, who notes that hard drug habits often start with gateway drugs like marijuana. ‘They’re from our community, which is alarming. Heroin used to be considered an inner-city problem, but not anymore. This is from all over our township.?