Boston man helps catch suspected burglar

By Stewart Bishop, Globe Correspondent

A determined Boston resident, concerned about the impact a burglary could have on his neighbors, chased an alleged thief down several streets today, eventually leading police to the suspect.

Nate Lusk, 33, said he was sitting on his couch in his apartment in the Back Bay neighborhood working on his laptop when his front door opened and an intruder partially entered.

Lusk had witnessed the man behaving suspiciously around his building about a half-hour before the intruder entered.

"Earlier, I had a meeting with a client nearby, and I noticed this guy looking at my building,” Lusk said. "And I was thinking to myself, ‘This guy looks sketchy.'"

When the man came through his door, Lusk called out and the man fled, he said. Lusk ran after him out to the street, where the man claimed that he was looking for someone else in the building and gave Lusk a name that Lusk knew did not belong to anybody in the building.

“I said, 'Why don’t I call the police and maybe they can help you find who you’re looking for?'” Lusk said. “And then he took off.”

The suspect fled down Clarendon Street. Lusk called 911 and chased after him. “I stuck with him, and all the while I’m telling the 911 dispatcher what’s happening and where I am.

“I said, 'I’m on Clarendon and Marlborough … Clarendon and Comm. Ave.,' and the dispatcher said, 'Why are you moving?' and I said, 'I’m chasing him,' and she said, ‘You’re doing what?'"

Lusk chased the intruder to St. James Avenue, where the man jumped into an already occupied taxi.

At the same time, several police officers converged on the scene, where they saw a gray-haired man in his 50s jump into the taxi, and another man in pursuit frantically waving his arms and pointing at the cab.

Police used their cruisers to surround the taxi, and ordered the individual out. The man, later identified as John Maloney, 54, of Brookline, refused to exit the vehicle but after a brief struggle, officers were able to remove him and place him in custody, police said.

Lusk said the man was wearing an ankle bracelet, but police and the Suffolk district attorney could not confirm if Maloney was being monitored by authorities.

Maloney is charged with breaking and entering, and is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday.

Lusk said he was moved to pursue the man because of the negative impact a break-in could have on his neighbors who have fallen on hard economic times.

The economy is faltering "and some people in my building are out of work,” Lusk said. “And to be robbed when you’re in that situation would be really tough.”

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