By Dave Rogers
Staff writer
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SALISBURY — A pair of suspected thieves are being held without bail after police discovered them stashing stolen property in an abandoned house across the street from the Railroad Avenue police station.
John Dominic DeFeo, 37, 1110 Broadway Ave., Haverhill, and Shaun R. Strong, 27, no fixed address, Salisbury, were ordered held without bail in the Middleton Jail following their arraignment yesterday at Newburyport District Court. They are due back for a pretrial hearing on Sept. 13.
DeFeo is facing three counts of receiving stolen property greater than $250, unarmed burglary, larceny of a drug and trespassing. Strong is facing a single count of receiving stolen property greater than $250, larceny of a drug, unarmed burglary, giving a false name to police and a previous warrant.
Salisbury police officers Richard Dellaria, James Leavitt, James Pollard, Joseph Anderson and Craig LeSage arrested DeFeo and Strong shortly after 1 a.m. Sunday as they were leaving an abandoned house known as the "Shanty Town" at 16 Cable Ave.
A Salisbury police official said at least one of the suspects was spotted by police carrying a television down Cable Avenue.
After stopping the suspects, officers searched the house. Inside, they found several electronic items, including a portable DVD player and a video camera. Police also found a cache of prescription drugs, including codeine, high-strength ibuprofen, lisinopril and propranolol.
Next-door neighbor Danny Ketchen said he noticed someone snooping around the place on Saturday night before the weekly fireworks display on Salisbury Beach.
Asked if he knew of anyone living in the house, Ketchen said he didn't know but it looked like the suspects had been using the smallish one-story house to hide items they may have stolen "until they figured out what to do with it."
"Probably not the best location to stash your stuff, next to the police station," Ketchen added.
