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Gene Kennedy reportingOne burglar may have ripped off at least five downtown Salt Lake City stores in the middle of the night. He left behind a clue that helped police catch him red-handed.
Three restaurants were hit in the area of 1300 S. State Street, Blimpies, Sonic and the La Macarena. Business owners will spend hundreds of dollars repairing broken doors and windows.
Jeff Paey, Owner, "Dogs R' Us": "Thankfully we only lost our front door and we had to spend several hours cleaning up."
Whoever did it made a mistake that's now become an important clue for police, $20 bills with blood on them. They were found outside three of the restaurants burglarized along State Street.
Meantime, a block away on Main Street, two other businesses were hit, M and B Auto and Dogs R' Us. The burglar shattered the front door of Dogs R' Us with a cinder block.
Jeff Paey, Owner, "Dogs R' Us": "He just blew through here and wrecked everything, and was looking for whatever he could find that was of some value."
Like a laptop or the cash till. The thief took neither; instead he grabbed a credit union bag with no money inside and made a dash for the door.
Jeff Paey, Owner, "Dogs R' Us": "The police seem to believe, they were looking at my front door very closely, they seem to believe that he cut his hand on the way back out from here."
A couple hours later and a mile away there was a burglary in progress at the La Diana Mexican Market. Officers went in with K9s and guns drawn.
Lt. Sandra Urry, Salt Lake City Police Dept.: "They observed the suspect inside. He smashed the till. The officiers set up containment on the building. We got the K9 here. They challenged the suspect, he refused to comply. The dog was sent in and he was bit on the arm."
But the major question remains: Is the man arrested, 49 year-old Richard Messina, the same man who hit all the businesses? Investigators don't know. At this point they say they can only connect him to the La Diana burglary. But there are some suspicious coincidences in his arrest.
Lt. Sandra Urry, Salt Lake City Police Dept.: "He does have a fairly recent cut to the hand."
According to police, he was also found with a bag of bloody money. The $20-dollar bills found at the State Street crime scene will be the determining factor. Investigators will test the blood on those bills to see if it's a DNA match to Richard Messina.
The suspect is in jail charged with the La Diana burglary.
