NH Mailman Allegedly Broke Into House, Tried On Woman's Boots
DOVER, NH (CBS) - A New Hampshire mailman has some explaining to do, after being arrested for allegedly breaking into a house on his route.
The homeowner on Piscataqua Road in Dover recently installed a new security system with motion-sensitive surveillance cameras that send an alert to her phone. On Wednesday morning, she got an alert that someone was inside her house.
When the homeowner, who does not want to be identified, saw the surveillance images, she recognized the man who had broken in and she also recognized his footwear.
"He didn't take anything from the house," according to Lt. Brant Dolleman of the Dover, N.H. Police Department. "Apparently he went into the house once, left the house and went back into the house. While in there, he put on some boots that she had and wore them inside the house, walked around with those on inside the house for some reason."
The intruder, police say, is 39-year-old Richard Ringer, who lives in nearby Raymond, N.H. But he also knows Dover very well since he's the mailman in the area.
"Obviously in cases like this you're always checking to see who is in the neighborhood; it's not that big a town," Lt. Dolleman explained. "He's a recognizable face in the neighborhood and as I said, we were able to locate him pretty quickly. We were able to find him by about 2 o'clock. He was still wearing the same clothes. Not the boots, but the clothes."
The homeowner also told WBZ the boots her mailman is wearing were kept in a box under her bed. On the surveillance video, she said, Ringer finds them in quite a hurry, suggesting to her that he's broken into her house and worn them before today.
Police are concerned there may be other houses he's broken into.
"That's one of the reasons to get this story out there - not just to talk about what a strange story it is," Dolleman said. "It's to see, do we have other victims out there?"
Ringer was released on bail.