Updated Dec. 3
In the season of giving, local police say they have found a Tisbury man believed to be taking, and it likely all unraveled thanks to an Apple AirTag — a device used to track stolen and lost items.
25-year-old Eric Juna Johnson was arrested Wednesday for what police are alleging were 85 separate thefts, including one instance of swiping more than $10,000 in cash.
After pleading not guilty on all counts on Friday, Johnson was charged with felony breaking and entering in the nighttime, larceny from a building, and larceny of over $1,200.
It’s not the first recent run-in with the law for Johnson. A police department in Rhode Island in October also reported that he was the suspect in a string of thefts in Warwick. In July 2023 he was also convicted in the Edgartown District Court on negligent operation of a vehicle after leading Island police on a multi-town pursuit on a dirtbike.
Johnson is currently being held without bail at the Dukes County House of Corrections after his arrest on Wednesday; his stay included Thanksgiving day.
During his arraignment, the Cape and Island’s District Attorney’s office requested a $15,000 bail on the local breaking and entering cases; his bail was set at $1,000.
The Tisbury, Edgartown, and Oak Bluffs police departments began coordinating an investigation last month in response to a string of robberies reported throughout the three down-Island towns.
Local police, according to court documents, relied on video surveillance as part of their investigation — tracking the same masked individual on multiple accounts. But Johnson’s likely undoing, the Apple AirTag, was attached to a Trek Marlin 7 bike stolen from a Vineyard Haven home in November. Police say that Johnson likely smashed the tracking device shortly after the crime was reported, when the bicycle’s owner began pinging the AirTag while looking for his bike. But Johnson wasn’t fast enough — a location was shared for his basement apartment on Carroll’s Way.
Half a dozen officers originally made efforts to reach Johnson at his apartment, including knocking on his door, and speaking with neighbors and the landlord. Police, with a search warrant, forced their way into the apartment last Wednesday, revealing a plethora of “items of evidentiary value,” as stated by the Oak Bluffs Police Department in a Facebook post late last week.
Officers wrote in court documents that upon entering Johnson’s apartment, they discovered numerous stolen items reported missing from previous break-ins, such as a $500 television taken from a Vineyard Haven resident, a Stomp mat estimated to be worth $196 that matched a scooter stolen earlier in the month from a Tisbury residence, a paper shredder jammed with checkbooks belonging to Island residents, the Trek Marlin 7 bicycle, gift cards, cash, an IPhone, and a ski mask matching the suspect in video surveillance. Additionally, police reported that an e-bike Johnson is suspected of stealing — estimated to be worth $4,899 — was shipped off-Island after it was reported missing in Vineyard Haven.
Officers also found a pill bottle with three types of pills, two of which were identified as the class B controlled substance Adderall, which Johnson confirmed he does not have a prescription to take, as well as a multi-shelf rack filled with shoes, in Johnson’s apartment. Attached was a cardboard sign identifying them as Johnson’s, and requesting that others do not touch them.
Police also noted in court documents that Johnson appeared to focus exclusively on unlocked vehicles and buildings, methodically targeting new streets or areas with each early morning jaunt. He moved from one car, garage, or shed to the next, brazenly opening unlocked doors and briefly rifling through their contents.
Oak Bluffs Police Chief Jonathan Searle said that the resulting arrest showed how effectively Island departments can work together.
“As it often happens in an emergency situation or in an investigation that crosses town lines, they work as one agency, and the results prove themselves. Each town played a part in successfully identifying the subject,” Searle said.
Johnson’s alleged spree accumulated more breaking-and-entering and stolen-property cases than in all of 2023 in at least two of the three down-Island towns.
According to the Edgartown 2023 town report, there were only six total cases of breaking and entering reported, and 21 cases of stolen property, in the entire year of 2023. In Oak Bluffs, in the entire year of 2023, there were 27 larcenies reported, nine cases of breaking and entering, one robbery, and four thefts from buildings.
In Tisbury, the department doesn’t list individual crime statistics in its annual report. In 2023, a total of 303 criminal charges were reported.
Last month, according to a police report, Johnson left what may have been his largest trail of theft yet, with one Oak Bluffs resident reporting $10,000 stolen from an unlocked car.
Johnson’s suspected spree was first reported in early November on Spring Street in Vineyard Haven, when one resident noted that $600 was stolen from two unlocked cars. Police also reported that a shed and a garage were broken into.
On Oct. 11, Warwick Police reported on their Facebook page that Johnson was arrested in connection with a string of motor vehicle break-ins that occurred in the north end of the city. Police said that he targeted unlocked cars for money and electronics, while covering his face to protect his identity. He was charged with multiple counts of larceny.
