Over the course of Friday and Saturday, Oak Bluffs Police responded to reports of a Jeep set on fire in the Martha’s Vineyard Campground, two brush fires, two house break-ins and seven overturned gravestones in the Catholic cemetery. Based on a description of a man seen trying to get into a house, police stopped and questioned Benjamin Fogg, who admitted he was responsible for the string of crimes, Detective James Morse said.
Police arrested Mr. Fogg, 32, who provided an Edgartown address, on numerous charges that included two counts of negligently starting a fire, seven counts of vandalism, one count of breaking and entering a motor vehicle, one count of arson of a motor vehicle, one count of breaking and entering (a misdemeanor) and vandalism, in connection with his attempts to break into a second house.
Mr. Fogg was arraigned on Monday in Edgartown District Court. As of Tuesday he was held in the Dukes County Jail on $15,000 cash bail pending his next court appearance.
Mr. Fogg, who only recently returned to Martha’s Vineyard after serving two months in the Worcester House of Correction, provided a written confession, Detective Morse said.
His evening crime spree began Friday. “What he told me is that he went to an AA meeting and after the meeting he started drinking,” Detective Morse said.
Mr. Fogg told police he was camping out at the edge of the Oak Bluffs cemetery. During the night he got cold and lit a fire, which started a brush fire that generated a response from the Oak Bluffs fire department. He left the cemetery and returned later, at which time he started another fire, which also was put out.
He then walked into Oak Bluffs. “When he was walking into town, that’s when he decided to take a nap in the car,” Detective Morse said, a 1994 Jeep Cherokee owned by a man unknown to Mr. Fogg. “In his written confession he said he was smoking and drinking nips in the car.”
A short time after police responded to a report of a car fire in Trinity Circle, police received a report of someone attempting to get into a house nearby. A witness provided a description of a white male wearing a Red Sox jersey and gray camouflage pants.
Officer Devin Balboni was responding to the fire call when he spotted Mr. Fogg, who matched that description. By the time he turned his police car around, Mr. Fogg was gone.
Police speculate that in his attempt to get away, Mr. Fogg attempted to break into a house on Massasoit Avenue by kicking in a plate-glass window. “When officers discovered the break-in, they found broken glass with a large amount of blood on it,” Detective Morse said. “The following morning, about 6 am, they observed Fogg walking in the downtown area and they recognized him as someone of interest, based on the description from the night before, and they observed that he had a large gash on his right calf.”
During questioning, Mr. Fogg told Detective Morse that he’d been living in the cemetery. He said he had no recollection of being in the car that caught fire. He told police that after attempting to enter the house on Massasoit, he entered a house on Tuckernuck Avenue.
He later brought police to the location. “We found a sofa with several cushions with what we believe was his blood on it,” Detective Morse said.
Police brought Mr. Fogg to the hospital for treatment of his leg wound. He was later transported to the Dukes County Jail. While Mr. Fogg was being processed at the jail, police received a report of overturned gravestones.
Sunday afternoon, Detective Morse reinterviewed Mr. Fogg, and asked him about the gravestones.
“He stated that he had been ‘tripping over things’ at the cemetery. I showed him several pictures of the tombstones that had been knocked over and asked him if that was something he had been responsible for, and he stated, ‘Yes, definitely.’ He said that he feels he only knocked three of the gravestones over.”