Free police officer photo, public domain guard CC0 image.
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WINCHENDON — On Friday, June 10 at 5 p.m., Officer Dylan Mei of the Winchendon Police Department responded to a residence on North Street following a report of a rock thrown through a window.
According to Officer Mei’s Narrative for the incident, when he arrived on scene, he spoke with the caller who said that at around 8:30 a.m., his wife noticed the damage and waited for him to return home from work to let him know.
“I spoke with [the woman] who stated she heard a noise outside but was unsure as to what it was,” wrote Officer Mei in his Narrative. “[The woman] thought [her husband] already knew about the window damage and did not want to bother him at work. When [her husband] arrived home, he called the station immediately to report the damage. The damage consisted of a broken glass window and the scratch on the hood of a 2000 Ford LGTCON.”
According to Officer Mei, the scratch on the hood of the truck was consistent with the trajectory of the rock, which he surmised ricocheted from the hood of the vehicle into the window of the residence.
The man told Officer Mei that he thought his neighbor, Matthew Sawyer, 57, of 80 North Street, was the culprit.
“[The man] has had some previous issues with Matthew in the past and believed Matthew tossed a rock from his porch as there was not another way that his window and truck roof could have been damaged,” wrote Officer Mei in his Narrative.
Officer Mei then went to get Sawyer’s side of the story.
“I spoke with Matthew Sawyer at his residence and he admitted to throwing a rock at [his neighbor’s] window that morning,” wrote Officer Mei in his Narrative. “I asked him why he did that and he said ‘I was frustrated with [my neighbor’s] son and then I learned from the court this morning that he is handicapped and I had the mentality of get off my property and stay away from me.’”
Officer Mei then told Sawyer that he will be responsible for the damages incurred by his tossed rock and that he will be summonsed to court for vandalism.
Police assessed the value of the broken window at $350 and the 2000 Ford LGTCON was valued at $4,000.
Sawyer was formally charged with Vandalize Property and summonsed to Winchendon District Court on July 8 for his arraignment. Following his arraignment, he was released on his own personal recognizance under the condition that “he obey all the local, state and federal laws,” “notify the probation department immediately if he changes his residence, mailing address or contact information,” “make no false statement to the police,” and stay away from his neighbor.
Sawyer is scheduled to appear in court again on August 17 for a pretrial hearing.
Disclaimer: If you are wondering why the incident in this story was from early June, that’s because I had to file a FOIA request to get the court documents for the incident. FOIAs are time consuming.
