Boston household says stranger was staying of their residence – NBC Boston

A Boston couple says an intruder might have been staying of their South Finish residence for weeks.

The Hammond household had felt like one thing was unsuitable at their residence earlier than Sunday, after they heard footsteps in a bit that is below building.

“There was an individual in our home that we did not know that was letting themselves in,” mentioned Ryan Rogers-Hammond. “Who is aware of what they have been doing up there?”

“I used to be offended earlier than this, and I am enraged now,” mentioned Matthew Hammond.

In accordance with a police report, Alonzo Poole had a key to their residence that was stolen from their lockbox.

When Hammond noticed him leaving Sunday morning, he referred to as the Boston Police Division.

“The unknowns and the what-ifs have simply been terribly haunting,” Rogers-Hammond mentioned. “I have not slept for the reason that key went lacking.”

A burglar broke into the Banyan Bar + Refuge, which was already closed on account of a hearth final month.

Anxiousness is widespread within the South Finish, with a number of current break-ins, together with some attributed to individuals struggling drug dependancy within the Mass. and Cass space.

“I struggled with substance use dysfunction, and I skilled road homelessness as a teen,” mentioned Brendan Little, a substance abuse coverage skilled who has labored in Boston’s restoration providers for 5 years. “I am actually sympathetic to that household. Nobody deserves to have that occur.”

He believes public well being coverage is a greater answer than locking up these preventing dependancy.

“For 60 years, we have been locking individuals away for substance use points, and it hasn’t labored,” Little mentioned. “If we offer individuals with an actual method to get a fundamental earnings, an actual method to get their fundamental wants met, there will probably be much less break-ins, there will probably be much less robberies.”

“I imagine that folks want therapy and so they need assistance,” Hammond mentioned. “However on the identical time, I’ve freedoms, my youngsters have freedoms, and so they should develop up in a neighborhood that is protected, the place I can take them to a playground and there is not an individual handed out with needles round them.”