SUNSET — Police got help in locating a burglar from the burglar himself.
“I think I met the dumbest criminal ever,” said Sunset Police Sgt. Brett Jamison.
Jamison and another officer received a call about a burglary of a home that is in foreclosure. The homeowners had been moving items out a little bit at time, Jamison said.
On Thursday, the owners went to the house to move more items and realized someone had stolen a sword, as well as four collector plates from Wales, he said.
The owners talked to their neighbors and learned a man had been “flashing a sword” the previous day, Jamison said.
He and another officer were called to the home, took down the information and then were sitting in their patrol car, “typing up the police report, when we were approached by a man.”
“He said, ‘Hey fellers, I need some help,’ ” Jamison said.
The officers asked the man what was wrong, and he said, “I’ve been shanked.”
Jamison said the man showed the officers his arms and wrists, which had cuts and abrasions. The man told the officers he had witnessed a burglary at the home, then proceeded to pull the four stolen plates from his backpack.
Jamison then asked about the sword.
“He said he didn’t know anything about a sword, and I said, ‘You know. The sword.’ And he said he found it in Sunset City Park and took it to a pawn shop.”
Police identified the man as Justin Cowley Pellegrino, 25. Officers booked him into Davis County Jail on one count of burglary and one count of theft. He is being held in lieu of $10,000 bail.
Pellegrino told officers his mother had kicked him out of her house and he needed a warm place to sleep, so he went to the vacant home across the street, Jamison said.
Jamison said Pellegrino told them he took the items, got $5 for the sword and used the money to buy spice, an illegal substance that can be smoked for a marijuana-like effect.
Jamison told the other officer, who is in training, that solving crime “does not happen like this. In the 15 years I’ve been a cop, this doesn’t happen. A suspect does not approach you and say, ‘Here I am.’ ”
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