Police credit West Boylston resident's call for arrests.

Byline: Michael Kane

WEST BOYLSTON - Police say a call reporting suspicious people in a backyard led to foot pursuit and to the arrest of two homeless men after they tried to conceal their whereabouts to police.

Evan J. Higgins, 29, whose last known address was 400 Foxboro Boulevard, Foxboro, and Andrew J. Moulton, 27, whose last known address was 38 Uxbridge St., Worcester, were arrested Saturday, June 1, and charged with trespassing, resisting arrest and misleading a police officer.

Detective Marcello Tavano said police received a call from a Maple Street resident about 11:30 Saturday morning after the homeowner confronted two men with backpacks in his back yard.

"He asked them what they were doing there and they told him they were on their way to take a bus," Tavano said, adding that the bus stop, at Walmart, was in the opposite direction to where the two men were traveling. "He was suspicious of them already, but when they told him that story, he called us."

Police, however, could not locate the two men.

"We started talking to neighbors and people in the area nobody had seen these two guys. So we became even more suspicious," Tavano said. "Both these guys were supposedly walking down Worcester Street and nobody saw them?

"We were concerned, given the number of recent housebreaks in the Maple Street area, that these two guys were being crafty and trying not to be seen by police," he said.

Sergeant Matthew Saunders later located a suspect matching the description of one of the men behind Sally Beauty Supply.

"As soon as he was seen, he took off into the woods," Tavano said.

A call for mutual aid was put out and Boylston, Holden and Sterling responded, along with a State Police canine unit. Tavano found Higgins exiting the woods further down Worcester Street.

The canine unit later located Moulton.

The charge for misleading a police officer stems from Higgins giving arresting officers a false name, according to Tavano.

The men told Tavano they ran because they believed there were warrants out for their arrest. There was a warrant out of Marlboro District Court for Higgins, but not for Moulton, Tavano said.

"He thought there was. Both of these guys have lengthy criminal records,"...

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