Smithfield Police Arrest Two Men For Stealing From Cars

A Greenville Avenue man caught Alex J. Rodriguez De Pina, 18 of 66 Daniels St., Pawtucket and Paul Nunes, 22, of 233 Shawmut Ave. Central Falls breaking into his car, called police and followed them, providing a description and their position until police could stop their car, a black Nissan Maxima.

Patrolman Justin Ferreira, who was driving on Pleasant View Avenue, spotted the suspects' car driving past and pulled it over. The driver, De pina, said he and his friends were from Pawtucket. "Man, we were just car hopping," which meant, Ferreira discovered, that they were entering cars.

All four occupants of the car were handcuffed and searched. In the car, Ferreira found several credit cards, a Garmin GPS unit ($100) a Dell Laptop ($2,300) an Iphone ($100) an Ipod ($50) a Garmin Nuvi 205w GPS ($150), a Zune MP3 player ($150), a Garmin Nuvi 1200 GPS ($150), a Samsung cell phone ($1) and earphones ($1).

Patrolman Dennis Courtemanche arrived with the caller who reported the crime, who identified one of the men as one of the people who'd taken things from his car. Dave's Towing responded and towed the Maxima back to the station.

De Pina and another adult were transported back to the station with the other two occupants of the car, both juveniles. While the second man was being searched an ID for Paul Nunes fell out of his pants, but the man said the ID was his cousin's. After questioning, the man admitted that he was Nunes.

De pina and Nunes were charged with larceny under $1,500, conspiracy, attempted larceny under $1,500, obstructing an officer and receiving stolen goods, a felony.