Thursday, 4:30 PM
Phoenix police arrest man suspected of robbing volunteer from Arlington
By April Yee
Globe Correspondent
Police in Phoenix yesterday charged a man in the brutal July robbery of an Arlington man whose arms were tied behind his back so tightly that part of one arm had to be amputated, a Phoenix Police Department spokesman said.
Police found Erik “Loc” Vargas, 22, at the Maricopa County Jail near Phoenix, where he was in custody on charges of an unrelated aggravated assault on Aug. 3, Sergeant Joel Tranter of the Phoenix Police said today.
Bruce Northrup, a volunteer for Habitat for Humanity, had been walking to his room in a Studio 6 Extended Stay Hotel on July 28, when Vargas asked him for a cigarette, Tranter said.
Northrup, 60, a chemical engineer, said he did not have any. Vargas followed him to his room, threatened him with a handgun, tied him up, and took cash, credit cards, a laptop, and a rental car.
The next day, a maid found Northrup in the room’s bathtub. By then, gangrene had set in in his left hand, and doctors were forced to amputate it near the forearm.
Northrup is undergoing treatment at the Lahey Clinic in Burlington.
