Paul Bass Photo
Eddie Eckhaus: "I won't be bullied" out of the neighborhood.
It’s clear who didn’t break the window of Eddie Eckhaus’s soon-to-open Whalley Avenue felafel restaurant: A man named Larry.
Eckhaus said he has an idea who did smash the window and make off with at least $500 of supplies. He vowed that that the incident won’t chase him from the neighborhood where he grew up and intends to do business
The man named Larry could not have broken Eckhaus’s window. Police believe Larry has committed a slew of other similar “smash-and-grab” commercial burglaries this year. The same New Haven cop has arrested Larry three times; Larry kept bonding out. But the judge raised Larry’s bond after his latest arrest. So Larry was behind bars last Thursday when someone else squeezed through the window of Eckhaus’s Lea’s Felafelhaus to commit a burglary.
Larry, meanwhile, appeared in court Wednesday, then returned to pretrial detention.
Larry’s and Eckhaus’s experiences reflect the challenges facing merchants and cops in the Whalley Avenue commercial corridor amid a wave of repeated window-smashing burglaries.
Return To Courtroom A
State Superior Court Judge Frank Iannotti at Wednesday's court session.
For the sixth time since his first arrest this year, Larry was brought into court Wednesday morning to stand before Judge Frank Iannotti. Five separate cases were before the judge, all related directly or indirectly to break-ins along Whalley Avenue.
One of two arrest warrant affidavits connected to the case states that police suspect Larry of numerous such commercial burglaries since February. Most took place along Whalley Avenue from the Mew Haven Cat Cafe and Pistachio Cafe in Westville Village to Papa John’s pizza at the downtown end of Whalley near Sperry Street, although others occurred on Howe Street and across town at Fabi’s Restaurant on Farren Avenue in the Annex.
“Approximately eighteen have a broken windows as the method of entry. When there was a register available in those eighteen incidents it was either pried open or stolen,” Officer Endri Dragoi wrote in one of the arrest warrant applications. He states that police collected DNA evidence in four of those 18 incidents, which came back as matching Larry’s DNA in a rapid test. Police are waiting on results of a subsequent DNA swab test to confirm those matches in connection with incidents in which Larry has not yet been charged, according to Dragoi.
Dragoi first arrested Larry in connection with two cases.
One was in connection with a February smash-and-grab break-in at a home on Orchard Street in the Hill. He told the officer at the time that he was considering self-harm, according to an arrest warrant for that case.
The second arrest was in connection to a rash of Whalley smash-and-grabs, with the help of video and physical evidence. (Read a previous article about those incidents here; the above video is from the surveillance camera at Ladle & Loaf on Whalley, one of the burglarized businesses.) Larry was initially held on a total of $200,000 bond related to charges from two sets of incidents.
At his arraignment, the judge lowered the total bond to $30,000. Larry posted it.
The Fabi’s break-in occurred days later. Dragoi subsequently arrested Larry on a warrant (on April 5) after, he attested, he recognized Larry, including his “distinct petite goatee” and backpack and “Nike-style boots,” from the video surveillance. By then the police had ready access on their Slack channel to earlier video of Larry from the Mew Haven break-in.
Larry’s bond was set at $150,000 on the latest charges. At his arraignment, the judge lowered it to $70,000. Larry posted bond and was released again.
At 11:17 p.m. on May 24, a burglar alarm went off at Hot Murga Indian hot fried chicken restaurant at 140 Howe St. after someone smashed the front glass window, then took $100 from the window.
An eyewitness gave an account to the police. And surveillance footage captured the man in the act, according to Lt. Ryan Przybylsko, who as top Whalley/Edgewood/Beaver Hills cop has been involved in these smash-and-grab investigations.
Officer Dragoi was on duty. He again recognized Larry from the video, according to Przybylski.
A night later Dragoi was again on duty when a similar call came from the Pistachio Cafe at the corner of Whalley Avenue and Blake Street. Dragoi rushed over and caught Larry fleeing from the scene with money from the Pistachio cash register in his pocket, according to Przybylski.
“It’s a challenge” to keep seeing an alleged serial burglar return to the street and allegedly continue committing break-ins right after officers arrest him, Przybylski said. “We continue to do our job regardless.”
When Larry first showed up in court again on felony burglary and criminal mischief and misdemeanor larceny charges in connection with this latest arrest, the judge kept the bond at a combined $200,000 this time for the two separate incidents. Larry remained in pre-trial detention.
On Wednesday morning, Judge Iannotti again kept the bond at a combined $200,000. As Larry looked on, his hands cuffed behind his back, prosecutor Jennifer Lindade informed the judge that at least one other warrant is in the works for Larry’s arrest pending DNA results. Larry’s attorney, public defender Jessica Missios, offered no objection as the judge agreed to continue the case again, until Aug. 30. Larry, who according to the state judicial database has yet to enter a plea in any of the cases, was shuttled back to the Whalley Avenue Correctional Center.
Will Higher Bonds Help?
Larry (center) with public defender Jessica Missios in court Wednesday.
Part of the reason for Larry’s releases involved the wait for confirmed DNA results that allegedly will more definitively connect him to more cases. And part was the lowered bond — an issue that has frustrated law enforcement officials seeking to keep repeat offenders from continuing to commit crimes.
New Haven Police Chief Karl Jacobson said a case like Larry’s is more complicated than the repeat violent-crime offender cases he successfully helped lobby the legislature to crack down on this term.
“It is frustrating, but I understand. Do we really want to put people in jail long term for breaking windows and property crimes?” Jacobson said.
“But it’s also frustrating for property owners who don’t have a lot of money. We have to think about the victims too. I’m sure he’s not going to be able to pay for all the damage he has done. We need to be able to put an end to this type of crime.”
Larry could not be reached for comment. His public defender, Missios, declined comment on the case.
Defense attorney Alex Taubes (who does not represent Larry) said locking up Larry for longer periods on higher bonds won’t protect the community or solve the problem.
He cited Larry’s continuing to commit break-ins when he knows he’s under video surveillance and expressed intention to harm himself as evidence that he needs mental health assistance to break the pattern. He added that sending someone to Connecticut’s incarceration facilities worsens those mental health problems.
“Unless we start giving out death penalties or life sentences for breaking windows, he’s going to be back out again,” Taubes said. “Get that man help, not prison.”
Meanwhile, Back On Whalley ...
As Eddie Eckhaus learned, keeping Larry behind bars didn’t stop window smash-and-grabs on Whalley.
Eckhaus has been working for months to prepare the narrow storefront at 370 Whalley for opening as Lea’s Felafelhaus.
A neighboring business provided Eckhaus with surveillance video footage of a man attempting to break the storefront window before dawn last Thursday morning (above) and allegedly returning later.
The burglar was able on that later try to break the window’s bulletproof glass, then squeeze through the 14-by-24-inch opening into the kitchen.
After he left, a random assortment of items were missing including a hairbrush, camera monitors, cases of Coke and Diet Coke, in total worth an estimated $500 to $600.
“He took my spices!” Eckhaus remarked. (Which spices? “If I tell you, you’ll have my secrets.”)
After reviewing the surveillance video, Eckhaus believes he knows who broke in: a man who regularly collects cans on the avenue. “I’ve given him a bag of cans in the past” as well as some money, Eckhaus said.
Eckhaus, who is 47, has lived in the Whalley area since his family moved here from Israel when he was 10. He said his grandfather died from injuries suffered in a random attack in the neighborhood years back, but that didn’t drive the family away.
Nor will this incident drive him away, said Eckhaus, who’s waiting on final regulatory approval to begin selling his Israeli-style felafels.
“I’m going to open no matter what happens,” he vowed. “No one’s going to bully me.”
Yes, Chief Jacobson and Mr. Taubes, , we do want to keep people like Larry in jail for longer than a night. Undoubtedly, Larry needs mental health assistance and if you want to vigorously lobby the City and state to fund those services, go for it. Many people need mental health assistance. But why should innocent homeowners and business people trying to make a living be asked to “pay” for a system that’s failing Larry. For now, the only system we have for Larry is to keep him in jail for longer than a night. I assume neither of you has been the victim of an assault, a robbery, or a break-in. Not only does the victim have to bear the cost of replacing windows and cash registers as well as the interruption to the business itself, but also the emotional cost of your space or your physical body being violated.-which lasts far longer than the time to heal physically. As someone who has been physically assaulted, the emotional trauma realizing that another human being whom you don’t know actually wanted to hurt you lasts far longer than the broken bone in your face. What will you say the next time Larry strikes but this time a young woman is quietly working in the back room and a “Larry” hits her over the head with the cash register? It sounds like your response would be- “ poor Larry- the system failed him again”- while the woman gets her face stitched up in the Yale ER. And I can only imagine Officer Dragoi’s frustration in arresting him again and again and he’s back the next night smashing another window. How could the Officer not think- why bother? Why arrest him, bring him to the station, write a report, etc. when you know it’s a waste of time and when you should be back out on the street working to protect people. Mr. Taubes, please continue your laudable work trying to exonerate INNOCENT people and stop saying the Larry’s of the world should not go to jail because we have a crappy mental health system.