Thursday, 4:30 PM
Owner of Marlborough bakery fends off intruder with machete
By Amanda Bergeron, Globe Correspondent
The owner of a small bakery and restaurant in Marlborough recounted today how he fended off a late-night intruder with the only weapon he could find -- a machete.
Dilson Lopes said in a telephone interview that was alone in the basement office of his restaurant, Pao Brasil, on Sunday night when he heard glass breaking upstairs. As he dialed 911, Lopes said he spotted a machete that he occasionally uses to cut tree branches.
"I don't usually have to protect myself, but I saw it and I thought I could use, so I took it," Lopes said.
Walking with the machete in one hand and his cell phone in the other, Lopes stopped the intruder just has he was exiting the store with a bag.
"He tried to leave, but I said 'You gotta stay here,' " Lopes recalled. "Then I showed him the machete."
Police arrived and arrested Alejo Hernandez Jr., 42, of Marlborough. Hernandez pleaded guilty at his arraignment in Marlborough District Court Monday to charges of vandalism and breaking and entering, said Corey Welford. a spokesman for the Middlesex district attorney’s office. Hernandez was sentenced to a year at the Billerica House of Correction.
