A 24-year-old Quakertown man remains in Montgomery County jail on charges of felony criminal trespassing and misdemeanor trespassing and loitering at night, after Lansdale Police said he was caught on a security camera walking into an unlocked Derstine Avenue home several times early Tuesday morning while drunk.
Taetuga Primo Maae, of Quakertown, also faces charges of possessing a controlled substance, public drunkenness and disorderly conduct, according to a criminal complaint.
Police were dispatched at 3:15 a.m. on June 1 for a report of a breaking and entering in progress at a home on the 300 block of Derstine Avenue near South Wood Street. The homeowner told police that the suspect, described as a black male wearing all black clothing with Nike writing, was walking on Wood Street near Derstine Avenue, police said.
Three officers allegedly found the suspect, identified as Maae, sitting shoeless on the front steps of the home, police said. Maae told police he was trying to get an Uber, as he lived in Quakertown and did not know who lived in the home, police said. Maae allegedly told police he was drinking earlier in the night, police said. Maae had no shoes on and told police he had slides (slip-on shoes), but did not know where they were, police said.
Police said Maae allegedly had a strong odor of alcohol on his breath and person, had slurred speech and glassy eyes. Two more officers arrived for backup, police said, and one officer recognized Maae as one of the people allegedly involved in a fight in front of Panico’s Neighborhood Grill in Lansdale earlier in the night. All persons in the fight had fled the scene before police arrival. The officer informed his colleagues that Maae’s slides were left outside the bar, police said, and that Maae got hit during the fight. Maae, police said, could not recall what happened earlier in the night.
After being taken into custody, police found two round, yellow diazepam pills on him during a search, police said, with no evidence to support he had the authority to possess the pills.
The homeowner told police that he arrived home from work shortly after 3 a.m. and found Maae allegedly standing halfway up his walkway on the west side of his home, police said. The homeowner said, “What’s up?” to Maae, who did not respond and walked off, police said.
The homeowner then got in his car and followed Maae around the block. Maae allegedly kept hanging around near the house, and the homeowner told police that he saw Maae allegedly enter the house via an unlocked side door to the basement, police said, adding he recalled closing the door before he left for work.
Maae was captured on camera allegedly attempting to get in the house via a locked back door and the locked front door, police said.
The homeowner told police he knew Maae entered his home because a chainsaw that was kept on the basement floor near the stairs was knocked over, police said.
According to the complaint, the homeowner did not call police right away “because he knows we deal with enough sh-t and if it was something innocent, he didn’t want to call us.”
Maae failed to post 10 percent of $10,000 bail following his Tuesday arraignment and has a preliminary hearing set for June 9 before District Judge Ed Levine.
All suspects and defendants are innocent until proven guilty. This story was compiled using court records and the affidavit of probable cause.
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