Man Swipes Laptop from Bannister Wharf, gets Caught after Chase

NEWPORT, RI—A 41-year-old Newport man led police on a foot chase before his arrest for allegedly stealing a laptop from a counter at Bannister Wharf on Wednesday.

Police said they received a report of a stolen laptop at around 11:20 a.m. The suspect, later identified by police as Ramondo Antonio Howard, of 167 Park Holm, reportedly took the laptop and fled on foot.

The employee said that she was doing inventory when Howard swiped the laptop and fled the building. She said that when she realized the laptop was gone, she called her boss, who reviewed security camera footage to give police a detailed description: he was wearing a North Face jacket, a black knit hat and possibly a scarf on his face.

Officers on patrol fanned out and soon spotted him running by Marcus Wheatland Boulevard, according to a police report. Police lost sight of him for a few moments but a neighbor said that he saw a man walk by “very casually” moments before police came to the area.

The search was aided by the store owner, who told police that as he chased the suspect, Howard threw a backpack containing the laptop to the ground.

Eventually, Howard was seen walking from Burnside Avenue “wearing a black short sleeve shirt, shorts and bright blue sneakers despite the cold weather,” police said.

Howard was breathing heavy and claimed that he had been dropped off in the back of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Center and was heading to 7-Eleven.

Police said the store owner was able to positively identify Howard as the person who stole the laptop and threw the backpack toward him, which apparently caused damage to the computer, rendering it inoperable.

Inside the backpack, police found clothes with graphics associated with the International Tennis Hall of Fame, an Apple phone charger and a charger labeled “We are Tennis.com.”

Officers also found clothing that Howard allegedly removed while trying to avoid being captured in a trash can outside 4 Bosworth Court, which is where the store owner lost sight of him during the foot chase.

Howard allegedly had stuffed the North Face jacket, a black knit hat, black sweatshirt and camouflage cargo pants into the trash can and police found a three-and-a-half-inch-long knife in the pants pocket.

Following up on the tennis-related items in the backpack, police contacted the Hall of Fame and spoke with an official who said the backpack had been stolen from an office.

The backpack also contained bank statements and deposit slips along with the two phone chargers.

The Hall of Fame official said that he was not aware that the backpack had been stolen until police called and the security staff would be reviewing surveillance footage to see if anything else had been stolen.

All told, Howard is facing two larceny charges and a weapons law charge