By SUE SUCHYTA
Sunday Times Newspapers
ALLEN PARK – Police arrested two men in separate home invasions March 11.
Neighbors in both cases alerted officers to suspicious circumstances that led to the arrests.
Both men were arraigned March 13 by fax in the unrelated cases and did not post bail. Both were transferred to Wayne County Jail and will appear in the 24th District court at 9 a.m. tomorrow.
Eric Mathew Krupp, of Allen Park, was arraigned for larceny in a building, attempted home invasion and being a habitual offender. Police said he has given them two different dates of birth, but that he is in his mid- to late 20s.
Anthony Michael Pilon, 39, of Lincoln Park, was arraigned on home invasion charges.
Krupp targeted the homes of people he knew from high school and used the acquaintance as an alibi if he unexpectedly encountered a homeowner.
On March 10, Krupp rang the doorbell several times at a house in the 9600 block of Reeck Road. By the time the resident answered the door, Krupp had entered the attached garage, where she saw him exiting.
When confronted by the resident, who recognized him, Krupp said he wanted to tell the homeowners that their garage door had been left open.
After Krupp left the scene quickly on foot, the resident noticed her car door open and the garage remote control missing from the vehicle. She then called his mother and left a message. Krupp apologized profusely, begged the resident not to call police and told her where her garage remote was stored.
Krupp called the resident back on her cell phone, so she put the call on speaker for the responding officer to hear.
The resident called Krupp by his first name and asked him several times why he broke into her garage. He said he did not know why, and again pleaded with her not to call the police.
The resident then went with the officer and found her garage remote in nearby bushes where Krupp said it would be.
The resident said she knew Krupp from high school but does not associate with him; she was also sure her garage door had been closed. Police tagged and took the remote control as evidence.
On March 11, the next day, a woman in the 14000 block of Thomas called police to say she was witnessing a possible breaking and entering in progress in the house across the street.
Krupp had knocked at the door, alerting the resident, then pretended to leave the area.
However, he returned to the house shortly afterward after seeing the resident leave. He was unaware that he had made the resident suspicious, and that the resident’s mother now was watching the resident’s house from her house across the street.
She saw Krupp throw his shoulder into the door several times in an unsuccessful effort to open it.
At that point, police arrived and questioned him. Krupp tried to say he was visiting the resident, who he knew casually through mutual acquaintances.
Police then contacted the resident, who admitted knowing Krupp but said they hadn’t seen each other in years and are not friends. The resident said Krupp had no reason to be in his house.
Police then arrested Krupp.
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Earlier that day police arrested Pilon at a house in the 14000 block of Belmont.
Neighbors called after seeing that glass had been broken out of the rear entry window of a house they knew to be unoccupied.
Police found Pilon hiding in an upstairs closet. He appeared to be intoxicated.
They contacted the adult children of the homeowner, an elderly woman in a nursing home, and confirmed that Pilon had no business being there.