PITTSBORO —
A palm print on a window led to the arrest of a Pittsboro resident who was charged with burglary, theft, and residential entry.
Jose Regaldo was arrested last week in connection with a residential break-in and theft that took place in August.
“An 89-year-old lady pushed her Life Alert when she awoke to a man at the foot of her bed,” Pittsboro Police Chief Christi Patterson said. “She went to look for him and found her back door open and she knew she had locked it. But when she couldn’t find anything, she thought maybe it had been a dream.”
After a few days passed, the victim realized a window screen had been pushed up and that a family photograph had been knocked off the wall.
“There was also money missing,” Patterson said.
Patterson said she went to the residence and found smeared palm prints on the outside of a window.
“It was like they had pushed the window up from the outside with the palm of their hands,” she explained. “So we asked for prints from people who had had access to the house.”
Regaldo was among those asked for prints but he refused, saying he was afraid of the police, Patterson said.
“He had been arrested before by IMPD (the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department) and they had his prints,” she said. “So I sent the state police crime lab what I recovered at the scene and there was a match.”
It took some time working with the IMPD and the Indiana State Police Lab, but the arrest was made last week. Regalado was charged with burglary, a class D felony; theft, a class D felony; and residential entry, a class B misdemeanor. He is being held in the Hendricks County Jail in Danville.
Patterson said this case was a pretty “big deal” to the department because they rarely get to identify suspects by using fingerprints or palm prints.
“I dust for prints all the time, but as such a small department we don’t have anything to compare it to,” she said. “I’ve been in law enforcement for more than 20 years and this is the first time I got a positive match on a print.”
She said she once got a positive match on a shoe print when she was working with the Hendricks County Sheriff’s Department.
brenda.holmes@flyergroup.com
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