Fall River man arrested for stealing gun, cash at Swansea Walmart

Fall River and Swansea Police teamed up to arrest a city man in a theft today.

According to Swansea Police, at 9:45 a.m., Swansea Police Officer Thomas Nolan was called into the station to take a report of a stolen or missing handbag that contained a large amount of cash as well as a handgun. The reporting party stated that she was shopping at Wal-mart and might have left it in a carriage. Officer Nolan immediately responded to Wal-mart to view any video footage of the incident and possibly identify any suspects or vehicles involved.

The female victim further stated that her Apple iPhone was in the purse as well. At 12:45 p.m. Officer Nolan contacted AT&T mobile and began the process of “pinging” the phone for its location. While this process was taking place, Detective Jonathan Boyd logged on the victims iPhone with the victims credentials and using both features began monitoring the phone’s movements through “Find My iPhone”. The iPhone was tracked from Brockton, Bridgewater, Lakeville, Freetown and ultimately Fall River.

Detective Boyd and Sgt. Richard Roussel began heading toward the Fall River area as the vehicle had crossed over from Freetown into Fall River. While entering Fall River, the location stopped moving and was pinned at the corner of Locust and Home Street. Boyd and Roussel headed to that location and Fall River Police were notified as well. Boyd and Roussel located at the corner of Locust and Home Street a male sitting in a small gray car by himself, and they began surveillance. The male then emerged from the car, opening the trunk and the 2 Officers approached the male. They informed him that they were investigating a stolen purse out of the Walmart in Swansea, and the male stated, “Yeah it’s in the trunk”.

Sgt. Roussel and Detective Boyd subsequently recovered the purse from the trunk, a large sum of cash as well as the firearm, still in the purse.

Arrested by Boyd and Roussel was Onlysion DeRochea, 60, from Fall River and charged with Larceny Over $1200.00. He was booked at Fall River Police and then transported to Swansea for booking.

Swansea Officers were assisted by Fall River Police, Sgt. Bernardo, Kiel Huard, Nick Custadio and Javier Rosa.