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MARLBOROUGH, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — Police in Marlborough, Massachusetts said that two people are under arrest in connection to a series of break-ins at a home of a disabled Vietnam veteran while he remains hospitalized with severe burns.
That veteran, Gene Rano, lost both of his legs after a fire last Tuesday left him with burns over nearly half of his body. WBZ-TV reported that a neighbor rescued him after he fell into a fire while burning wooden planks and other debris in his yard.
According to police, Joseph Migliaccio 35, of Woonsocket, and Sarah Hampton, 31, of Sudbury, broke into Rano's home three times over the weekend. They broke into the house, in broad daylight.
Rano's son Nicholas told WBZ NewsRadio's Kim Tunnicliffe that his father remains in a Boston hospital.
Rano's home was broken into two years ago, and that's when he installed a surveillance camera system that caught the above images.
The video stills, shown to WBZ by Nicholas, show a man and woman kicking Rano's door down, ransacking the house, and leaving with large-screen TVs and other electronics.
"They took vaccuum cleaners, shampooers, they took things in boxes that I'm not even aware of specifically what they were," Nicholas said. "They took his change. They even took military badges and currency that was of foreign nature to try to cash in at banks and exchange at malls, and jewlery. I mean, they pretty much took anything and everything they could."
Nicholas said he's feeling a range of emotions.
"Being upset with tears, to being angry with a lot of hate and disgust," he said. "And then just add that he's a senior citizen, he's handicapped, he's a veteran. He's also in a hospital and that's who you prey on at this point in life? It raises the bar to that level of disgust that I have for these people."
He said the thieves also stole his father's medications.
"For his heart and his blood pressure and pains," Nicholas said. "That seemed to be their first—'let's steal all the drugs.'"
Nicholas believes his father knew one of the suspects through a friend, and actually lent the woman money.
"She went to request money from him because she was supposedly in need of some things, and he was nice enough to give the last few dollars that he had to these people," Nicholas said. "And that was just a plot to get in the house and clearly scope the house out for what they planned on doing."
Marlborough Police tell WBZ-TV that Migliaccio and Hampton were released Wednesday on $1000 bail. They are scheduled to be arraigned on one felony charge of breaking and entering in the daytime on Thursday.
"I think that they're sick," Nicholas said. "I would tell them that people like you deserve to rot in a jail cell for the rest of your life. If it was up to me, I'd have a lot harder of a punishment. It's disgusting, I don't have other words except it's just disgusting. People like this, it just disgusts me. I just hope that our system does what it's supposed to."
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WBZ NewsRadio's Kim Tunnicliffe (@KimWBZ) reports