Richard Melcher, 50, of Derry is charged with burglary, resisting arrest and attempted theft of a motor vehicle after police say he broke into a home at 9 South Policy St. in Salem Saturday morning and later attempted to steal a police cruiser.
Salem officers responded to the home at about 11:07 a.m. after a resident reported returning home to a broken window and open door after just an hour away from the house.
Police say the bedroom had been torn apart and several pieces of jewelry and other items were missing. There was also an amount of blood at the scene that police said officers believed came from a cut to the intruder.
After canvassing the area, police said officers found Melcher in the parking lot of a nearby Red Roof Inn with a large amount of jewelry. Police say he also had several fresh cuts on his hands.
During questioning, police say Melcher ran from officers and attempted to get into the driver's seat of a Salem police cruiser and put the car in drive.
Officers used a Taser to subdue Melcher and pulled him from the vehicle without further incident, police said.
Police say Melcher had been living at the Red Roof Inn and that detectives found numerous items in his room that had been reported stolen from earlier burglaries in Salem and surrounding towns.
He was held on $25,000 cash bail pending an arraignment in Salem District Court.
On Friday, Salem police also arrested Jeffrey Beaulieu, 26, of Salem, on a charge of attempt to commit burglary after officers found him in the area of an alleged residential break-in on Brady Avenue.
Police say an officer on patrol saw a suspicious vehicle parked outside 24 Brady Ave. at about 10:06 a.m. Friday. On a second pass of the home, officers said the car was gone, but was stopped a short distance down the road.
After an investigation, police said Beaulieu had indeed broken into the Brady Avenue home, but that the police cruiser had scared him off before he took anything.
He was held on $5,000 cash bail pending an arraignment in Salem District Court.
Salem police say Beaulieu is a "known house breaker" and is currently out on bail for breaking and entering charges out of Tewksbury, Mass., and Harvard, Mass.