West Tisbury Police will summons Geoffrey B. McCullough, 21, of Hingham to face charges of breaking and entering, malicious destruction of property, and larceny in connection with a breaking and entering at Alley’s General Store Saturday night, Sept. 5.
Lieut. Matt Mincone said the young man saw his photo on the MVTimes website. On Tuesday morning he and his father arrived at the police station.
“He was extremely remorseful and embarrassed,” Lieutenant Mincone told The Times. Alcohol played a role in the incident, and the young man said he had no recollection of breaking and entering Alley’s.
Mr. McCullough broke a window and entered from the porch of the well-known store on State Road in the heart of West Tisbury just before 9 pm Saturday night, police said. He took four packs of cigarettes before the arrival of a cleaner scared him off even as police, alerted by an alarm, were on their way.
Police posted a short surveillance video on the department’s Facebook page and provided a still photo to The Times in an effort to enlist the public’s help to identify the suspect.
Lieutenant Mincone said a broken window and four packs of cigarettes may not seem like much, but irrespective of the dollar value it was important to the community that every effort be made to catch the person responsible, “and we took it seriously.”
Alley’s is more than just a store, Lieutenant Mincone said. “This was a quality-of-life issue for us,” he said.
