A ​“17” Spots A Predawn Burglar

Dwayne Branch heard ​“some banging” outside as he set up the Prince Hall Masonic Temple for a weekly meeting.

At 4:30 a.m., the meeting was five and a half hours away. It was still dark outside. And otherwise quiet.

Branch (pictured above) didn’t know that he would soon be called a ​“17” as well as a ​“concerned citizen” — the first meant as a compliment, the second drenched in sarcasm.

“At first I thought somebody was trying to fix a car,” Branch recalled about hearing the banging. ​“But it sounded stranger than that.”

Branch, who’s 49, had stopped by the Masonic lodge on this pre-dawn Saturday morning on his way home from work as an overnight custodian at Arden House, an assisted-living home. An active member of the lodge, Branch volunteers as the caretaker.

He looked out a side window. Because Branch had recently installed exterior lights (“It looks like daytime,” he boasted), he had a clear view of what caused the banging: A man broke the window to the Powsner Auto Metal Works next door at 33 Sperry St. Branch saw the man climb in the window, then climb out carrying an object. The man paused at the corner of Sperry and Dickerman, apparently weighing which street to take.

Branch called 911.

“You’ve got to hurry up!” he recalled telling the dispatcher. ​“He’s leaving.”

He said he followed the man while the police headed over. He described the burglar’s outfit: brown jacket, blue jeans, white sneakers, black hat.

He added a description of his own clothing (Masonic jacket, blue pants). ​“I didn’t want them to mistake me” for the burglar, he explained.

The burglar chose Dickerman. Branch followed from the opposite side of the street.

The man stopped to sit on a front porch. Branch kept walking, flagged the first officer to arrive.

“I said, ​‘That’s him over there,’” he recalled.

A second officer arrived. ​“They called over the radio [that] whatever a ​‘17’ is can make a ​‘positive ID’ of the ​‘perp.’”

The officers arrested the man. Branch identified him as the burglar.

Branch later learned from a fellow Masonic member, Lt. Makiem Miller (pictured), that ​“17” is New Haven police code for ​“complainant.” Miller happens to be the top cop in the police district where the crime took place. He explained to Branch that ​“complainant” is a compliment — it means someone who calls police to let them know trouble is occurring.

A ​“17” like Branch can prove essential to solving a burglary, Lt. Miller said. ​“This is what we need. If he didn’t call in the information right away, this would have been another burglar getting away,” Miller said. ​“Burglars are usually on foot or a car waiting. We can lose them in a matter of minutes.”

Police charged the 54-year-old man with burglary, criminal trespass, criminal mischief, and larceny. He had a laptop on him, which police returned to the auto body shop owner, according to Sgt. Manmeet Colon, who heads the department’s robbery and burglary unit.

At 1 Union Ave., the suspect told Detectives Juan Ingles and and Brian DiAnge that he had gone back on drugs, according to Colon. He was stealing to get a fix. Not only did Branch help police prevent future burglaries by this suspect, Colon said, he may have also ​“saved a life,” in the event that the burglar had succeeded in scoring and then possibly overdosed.

Branch said he helped police foil another crime, decades ago, in the old Elm Haven housing development, where he grew up. Branch, in his 20s at the time, saw a man beating his girlfriend. ​“He was a bigger dude,” he recalled, ​“so I wasn’t going to approach him.” He called the police, who arrived in time to stop the beating and arrest the man, he said.

According to the state judicial database, the alleged burglar Branch spotted last Saturday has been in and out jail since 2009 on a variety of charges, including failure to register as a sex offender. Branch had never seen the man before.

“Thanks a lot, concerned citizen,” the arrestee told Branch as police took him away.

“I was like, ​‘You’re welcome.’ I said, ​‘When you do this, certain people are going to tell on you.’ This shouldn’t have happened.”

David Montesanto, co-owner of Pownser Auto, said he has gotten to known Branch over the years. ​“It was a nice feeling that someone’s looking out for us. He’s a real good guy,” Montesanto said. He plans to thank Branch with a free dinner — or a car wash.