Belmont Police Log, Aug. 13-27: Naked man at Rock Meadow, vandalism, hit and run, package theft, break-in, check fraud and more

The following are excerpts from the Belmont Police log as made available by the Belmont Police Department. The log is public and available for review. All persons are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law.

Thursday, Aug. 13

1:20 p.m.: A Belmont resident reported a break-in. She was away since Aug. 10 and returned home today at 12:30 p.m. She observed the exterior screens on two windows were raised up. Both windows were locked and the screens were not raised when she left. The rear door located on a screened porch had damage on the exterior side of the door near the dead bolt. She said the door was locked when she returned home. Officers searched the interior and exterior of the home and observed a screen on the porch appeared to have been cut open. The homeowner said it was intact when she left. She also said although the exterior door was secured before she left, when she returned, it was unsecured. Officers also observed an indentation from potentially a ladder in the ground near the windows that were open. A window to her unattached garage also had pry damage along the bottom. Two ladders were missing from the garage. Officers canvassed surrounding homes. Neighbors said they did not see or hear anything. There was a Ring doorbell camera at a nearby home, but no one was home.

Friday, Aug. 14

10:24 a.m.: A neighbor of a Belmont resident that reported a break-in said she noticed a small dark black or blue compact car parked directly across the street from her house earlier in the week. She believed it was strange because no one parks there. Everyone parks in their driveways. She then heard a lot of banging and saw an additional light-colored SUV parked in front of her house, almost on her lawn. She said she began to feel uneasy and did not want to leave the house. She then saw the two cars make a U-turn towards Common Street.

1:07 p.m.: Watertown Savings Bank reported a disturbance involving a man who was issued a no trespass. She wanted him removed from the premises. The Belmont Police escorted him off the property and gave him a copy of the no-trespass order against him. He said he understood and left without incident.

3:15 p.m.: A woman parked on Common Street at Payson Street reported her Volkswagen Tiguan’s driver’s side mirror was knocked off. There was no other damage to the vehicle and there were no reported witnesses.

Saturday, Aug. 15

11:24 a.m.: A Hill Road resident reported theft of her son’s bicycle. It was parked beside hers and locked with a chain lock to the bike rack provided by Hill Estates. A chain lock with a black cloth covering was cut and left on the ground where her son’s bike was. There was a discarded pair of plyers in the area. She last saw the bike on Aug. 9. Here rear entrance doors were wide open and the door to the garage is never locked. She was advised to contact management regarding the unsecured doors. She said she informed them of the stolen bike, and they told her to report the theft to the police. It was a red 10-speed mountain bike worth $800. There were no surveillance cameras in the area.

Sunday, Aug. 16

4:26 p.m.: A Belmont resident reported vandalism. She is involved in an ongoing civil dispute with her landlord. She was away since Aug. 6. Before she left, her above ground Bestway pool was up and intact. Her sister visited the property while she was away on Aug. 11 and said the pool was taken down and folded up and put in a corner of the yard. Upon her return, she unfolded the pool and noticed multiple slash marks in the pool and the tarp that goes beneath it. There were five slashes to the pool and four slashes to the tarp The pool was valued at approximately $550, and the tarp was valued at approximately $60. She also had an Arlo camera valued at $250 that was taken from the common area of her apartment building. She has not received mail. She believes someone taped something to her mailbox and her landlord ripped it off. She believes her landlord is taking the mail from her property and returning it to the post office. Her landlord reached out to her housing case specialist and told them she abandoned the property, which caused her to lose her Section 8 temporarily. She said she never abandoned the property but communicated she would be traveling for a while to locate other housing.

8:30 p.m.: An Oakley Road resident reported package theft. The resident said that back on July 22, a package arrived at his Oakley Road home. He said that inside the package, he had two Sports training cards valued at $2,634.94. He received confirmation the package arrived, but there was no picture of the package included in the notification. His main concern is getting refunded for the stolen items and his credit card company said the only way for them to begin processing a refund is to receive a police report.

Monday, Aug. 17

11:18 a.m.: A Belmont resident reported ordering an Apple iPad Pro from Best Buy online and never received it. He was notified it was delivered on March 24th, but it never got delivered. He talked to Best Buy about getting a refund and was told to file a police report.

Tuesday, Aug. 18

5:22 p.m.: A Belmont resident reported identity fraud. She received emails from LifeLock that said they blocked loan attempts in her name. She grew suspicious because she had not tried to take out any loans recently, she logged into her LifeLock account and followed instructions for victims of identity fraud. She filed a report with identitytheft.gov and was instructed to file a police report. She called Experian and spoke with a representative about the incident. The representative told her that her credit would be blocked since there were recent identity fraud attempts. She created a Transunion and Equifax account to see if she gets any more alerts. There were three different loan attempts.

8:01 p.m.: A moped sped through a crosswalk when the signal was red and a pedestrian was approaching. Belmont Police attempted to stop the moped by activating emergency lights. The operator looked at the officer and continued eastbound on Concord Avenue, then turned right onto Edgemoor Street without pulling over or stopping. The moped did not exceed the posted speed limit at any time while the officer observed it.

Wednesday, Aug. 19

2:53 p.m.: A Hill Road resident reported a stolen electric bicycle from one of the property’s garages. She emailed the onsite management office to advise them of the theft and see if they had any camera footage. They said they would check the footage and advised her to file a police report. The electric bicycle was a XP4 750 Special Launch Bundle Electric Bicycle pine green color valued at $1,380.19 and was last seen on Aug. 12. It was left unlocked in one of the garage bays. Hamilton Properties said they would check the security footage for that garage bay between Aug. 12 and Aug. 18 and will inform the police if they make any discoveries.

7:45 p.m.: A Belmont juvenile with his friends was approached by two other juvenile males at Town Field. He was questioned about a scooter across the street from the park and whether it was his. He said it was not. He later saw males take off with the scooter. He described the two males as 6-foot-1 inch. One with ginger hair and the other with afro-like hair and darker skin. One of the males pointed to a residence on Orchard Street and said that was where the scooter was parked and later taken from. Belmont Police attempted to make contact with any residents at the address but were unsuccessful. They went to the residence of one of the other juveniles and spoke to him and his mother. He admitted looking at the scooter with his friend. The mother spoke to the son privately and then he said he was going to get the scooter. He did not provide any details about the other male or how the scooter was obtained. He returned the scooter to where it was taken from on Orchard Street. The scooter was later taken back to the Belmont Police and logged into evidence. The owner of the scooter could not be located. The juvenile is being charged with larceny under $1,200.

9:18 p.m.: Several packages were stolen from an Oliver Road residence. The owners of the home provided Ring doorbell camera footage depicting an unknown individual approaching their residence at 12:39 a.m. on what appears to be an E-bike. The individual parks directly in front of the residence, dismounts the bike and appears to stumble while walking to the front door. The individual then takes the packages from the front door and walks back to his E-bike and gets on the bike holding four packages. He appears to be a white male wearing a short sleeve shirt, white shorts, a backpack, white sneakers and a baseball cap. The packages contained two shoe insoles worth $120, two bags of candy worth $26, and two compost bags. The total value of all the packages was $200. The homeowners said they would contact Amazon to attempt to receive a credit/refund.

Thursday, Aug. 20

10:45 p.m.: An employee of a store on Common Street said he received a call on the business line from Detective Jones of the Belmont Police at 5:30 p.m. (Note: There is no Detective Jones employed with the Belmont Police). He said he had a Southern accent and asked to speak with the manager. He informed him he was the only employee working and would be able to help him. Detective Jones said he was in contact with the store owner and was investigating counterfeit currency and potential financial crimes taking place in the store. He told the employee to help him with the investigation; he would need to make several deposits with the store’s money. He instructed him to take cash from the store and deposit it at CVS on Trapelo Road. He said the money would be deposited into the store owner’s account. He provided bar codes to the employee’s personal cell phone to provide the clerk for the deposit. The bar codes appear to be for a Vanilla card. The detective then called the employee’s personal cell phone so he could be on the phone with him during the transaction and walk him through the process. The employee made three deposits ($199, $199 and $126), totaling $524. He provided screenshots of his text messages and transaction receipts. After the transactions were completed, the detective informed the employee he had to follow up on some accounts that contained money embezzled from the store. He said the accounts appeared to be tied to him and some other employees. He asked the employee to show him photos of his bank statement to see what was in his account. He told the employee he would have to withdraw money from his personal account and make a similar transaction as he did with the store’s money to show that he was not involved with these questionable accounts. The employee told the detective he had to go to his second job and would complete the task when he was out of work. They maintained contact via text. They then spoke on the phone, and the detective instructed him to withdraw $880 from his Discover account at an ATM in Harvard Square. The employee went to CVS on JFK Street in Cambridge and completed two deposits (380 and $500) just after 10 p.m. The detective told him he could get reimbursed for his deposits at the Belmont Police Department. He provided the phone number for Detective Jones. HE said he has not been able to reach him since the last deposits. Belmont Police attempted to call the number but received automated messages saying the subscriber was not available. He was advised to contact the police if the store received any further suspicious communication.

Friday, Aug, 21

10:32 a.m.: A Belmont resident reported auto insurance fraud. He began receiving phone calls from Progressive Insurance regarding an automobile accident that occurred in Texas. He ignored the calls initially thinking they were scam calls, but when the calls persisted, he reached out to Progressive Insurance directly on July 26 and spoke to an agent with Progressive’s Special Investigations Unit. She confirmed that someone in Texas opened an auto insurance policy in his name and filed a claim on a motor vehicle accident that occurred in Texas. He did not have any specific details regarding the circumstances surrounding the accident. He knew the insured vehicle was a Kia. Progressive Insurance advised him to file a police report. He has not suffered any financial loss and notified the credit bureaus. He was also advised to notify all his financial institutions about the incident.

12:07 p.m.: An employee of a construction company doing on site work at a building on Trapelo Road observed a vehicle pulling into the parking lot with front end damage and small parts falling off as it pulled down the driveway towards the parking space. The front bumper was missing, and the hood was smashed in. The vehicle owner said she is a parishioner at a church that meets on the second floor of the building. She attempted to back out of her parking space at a high rate of speed. As a result, the vehicle struck the building and damaged a dumpster behind the building, then it struck and damaged a fence that abuts the property line. Following the impact, the employee said she got out of her vehicle and gave her license information to him. She then got back into her vehicle and drove towards Waltham. Belmont Police contacted the woman who said she was on her way to the police station. The woman told the police she somehow lost control of the vehicle while she was backing out of the parking space. She is unsure how this happened. She took an Uber to the police station. She said her car was waiting to get towed to a junk yard. Her vehicle was uninsured and unregistered. She was issued a criminal application to leave the scene of a motor vehicle accident involving property damage and operating an unregistered uninsured motor vehicle on a public way.

1:12 p.m.: Hit and run reported on Oak Street. A man who parked his vehicle on the street on Aug. 20 at 6 p.m. reported a dent on the left side of his vehicle when he returned on Aug. 21 at 9:30 a.m.

Sunday, Aug. 23

8:30 pm.: Belmont residents said they mailed a check to Mass Eye and Ear at the mailbox on Bright Road at Gale Road for $300 as a donation on Aug. 8. When he received his bank statement, he noticed the check was washed and made out to “Michael P. Buckley” for $3,020.00. The check cleared on Aug. 10.

Monday, Aug. 24

8 a.m. An employee of Belmont’s Public Works Department reported a white town line sign (Entering Belmont) on the Westbound side of Concord Avenue on the Lexington border was stolen. It was 5-feet-by-5-feet and very heavy.

5:41 p.m.: A Belmont resident reported losing $6,600 in a fraudulent carpentry scheme. He was speaking with an employee of a Woburn construction company to get his front porch rebuilt. The employee came in person, and they discussed options and pricing and came to an agreement. He was speaking to the employee via text and email. He was sent instructions on how to send the money via wire transfer or ACH. He sent $6,600 via wire to the banking and routing number sent to him in an email he believed to be from the construction company. He notified the employee that the money was sent, and he said he did not receive it. He then noticed the email that sent him the banking and routing information was different from the employee’s email and realized it was fraudulent. HE confronted the employee about it and believes the employee created a nearly similar email with the goal of scamming him. He denied doing so and then the discussion came to a halt. Belmont Police contacted the employee with the department’s phone asking him about the situation and that the resident believes he was scammed. He said he did not create replicated email and does not use it. He was shocked someone did that. He believes someone hacked his legitimate email due to the fact he only accepts money for jobs via check. He never asks for wire transfers or does transactions int eh form of ACH. He said none of his employees have access to his email or know his passwords. He was confused about how it happened and said he was not guilty of scamming.

5:50 p.m.: Hit and run reported on Walnut Street. A white male under 30 driving a black Nissan SUV struck the vehicle between 5:30 and 5:35 p.m. There was moderate damage to the front right and front right side of the vehicle. There were no Ring cameras in the immediate area.

Tuesday, Aug. 25

10:33 a.m.: A Belmont resident believes someone stole a check she wrote. She was informed about a check drawn from a Wells Fargo account for $832 to a landscaper she uses. It was written on June 18 and returned as a “stale dated item.” She does not have a Wells Fargo account. The signature on the check was not hers. She was advised to check her credit and bank accounts for any suspicious activity. She was also advised to contact Wells Fargo to ensure a fraudulent account wasn’t opened in her name.

7 p.m.: A Belmont resident reported vandalism. A second-floor tenant said a downstairs neighbor who moved out of the first-floor unit occasionally comes back to wreak havoc. When she arrived, the reporting party saw her enter the house at 2:54 p.m. and exit around 3:15 p.m. After she left, their cable was disconnected and there were several uncooked hot dogs left in the front of their front door on the ground. He went downstairs to the common area basement to check the cable modem and noticed it was severely damaged. Wires were pulled out of the box. He was advised to contact the landlord to update him on the cable issue. The woman returned again at 5 p.m. and was yelling, “I’m back” in the direction of their apartment from the front steps.

Wednesday, Aug. 26

8:12 a.m.: A stolen package reported on Trowbridge Street. It was ordered from Amazon and delivered on Aug. 25 at 6:12 p.m. She discovered it was no longer on her porch at 4:50 a.m. on Aug. 26. It contained a bottle of shampoo, conditioner and coffee grinder. She has security cameras but none of the angles show the front porch.

3:28 p.m.: A Belmont resident reported his credit card information hacked one month ago. He contacted his credit card information and the situation was handled. Today he received a notice someone stole 142,840 American Airlines reward miles from his credit card account. He has no idea who took the miles or if any airline flights have been booked with the miles. He was advised to contact his bank and major credit bureaus.

Thursday, Aug. 27

7:52 a.m.: A resident parked her vehicle in the lot to her apartment building on Aug. 24. Two days later she noticed a slice in her front passenger side tire approximately two inches long. Her rear passenger tire had low air pressure, but she did not observe any damage at the time. Her vehicle was vandalized with long scratches and damage to a light in the same parking lot in April 2026. There have been other instances of vandalism to moto vehicles at this property, similar to this incident in 2024 and 2022.

Thursday, Aug. 27

11 p.m.: Two empty vehicles were parked at Rock Meadow. One was a 2024 gray Subaru Cross Trek and the other was a 2008 silver Toyota Highlander. Belmont Police observed several teenagers exiting the woods. They said the gray Subaru was their vehicle. We informed them of the recent suspicious events to warn them to use caution in the area. Belmont Police asked if they observed any suspicious activity in the area or anyone else in the area with them tonight. They said they did not observe anyone. They also said they did not know who the other vehicle belonged to. They then returned to the wooded area. Two minutes later, they came running out of the woods and said they observed a man who appeared to be naked in the middle of the community gardens. He did not have a head lamp on, but he did appear naked. Belmont Police conducted a thorough search of the gardens with negative results.

Belmont Police responded to five six mental health and three domestic calls Aug. 12-27.