A Franklin man is facing charges for breaking into a woman’s home in Rocky Grove and stealing a safe out of her bedroom.
Franklin state police have identified the man as Christopher Rutherford, 38.
Police said in a criminal complaint they responded Jan. 14 to a residence on Gilfillan Street and were told by the woman who lived there the door was broken, the lock was busted and the safe in the bedroom was missing.
The trooper observed drops of blood in the bedroom and called state police forensic services to collect samples of the blood and get fingerprints, the complaint said.
On Jan. 18, police received information from another law enforcement agency that Rutherford was a suspect in several other burglaries in that area and that he supposedly cut his hand from hitting a wall, the complaint said.
A woman who lives at that residence told police Rutherford had showed up at her house with a safe that was “busted open” and told her to dispose of the safe, according to the complaint.
The woman also said Rutherford told her he had cut himself when he broke into the residence to remove the safe, the complaint said.
Rutherford was charged with felony counts of burglary -overnight accommodation, no person present, criminal trespass-enter structure, theft by unlawful taking of movable property and receiving stolen property and a misdemeanor count of criminal mischief.
Rutherford hasn’t been arraigned on the charges.
