A man who turned himself in to police after he was allegedly caught on camera walking into a home in Northbridge appeared in court Wednesday.
Esteban De Jesus Fonfrias-Soto, 26, of Worcester, had been held on a felony charge of breaking and entering but was released on $500 cash bail and ordered to stay out of Northbridge.
"I am sorry to that family home," Fonfrias-Soto said as he left the hearing. "It wasn’t my fault. It was just a mess-up. I just want to have a normal life and do normal stuff. People just want to play games, I don’t know."
Fonfrias-Soto previously told officers that he'd entered the home because he thought he was meeting a woman he'd recently met on Snapchat, the social media app. He said he'd paid the woman $200 and she sent him an address.
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Doorbell camera showed a man confidently walking into the home on Sunday afternoon while appearing to text on his cellphone.
However, after spending about 15 minutes in the house at the address she'd apparently given him, he left, thinking he'd been scammed or misled, Northbridge police said in a statement.
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“We’re probably both a victim here of something," homeowner Tarah Schweitzer said after Fonfrias-Soto's arrest.
Schweitzer called the incident bizarre, unsettling and nerve-wracking. She, her husband and other adult relatives were in the backyard trying to put together a swing set while their 1-year-old son was napping in his bedroom and their two other children and niece played inside, Schweitzer said.
"My daughter said, 'Mommy, there was someone in our house,' and I said, 'No, there wasn't,' and then my husband came out and said, 'Blake said there was someone in our house,'" Schweitzer recalled.
It appeared nothing was stolen and no one was harmed in the incident, Northbridge Police Chief Timothy LaBrie said Monday, before Fonfrias-Soto turned himself in.
"Anytime you have any type of house break or breaking and entering, and then with the length of time the individual's in the house, it's definitely concerning," he said.
He explained to NBC10 Boston on Tuesday, after the arrest was announced, that Fonfrias-Soto faces a felony charge because someone who breaks into a home does so to commit a felony.
