One Wonderland metals thief arrested, other escapes

REVERE – A Revere man was arrested Wednesday night for allegedly stealing copper from the former Wonderland Greyhound Park building after a tip was relayed to the police.Nicholas Chamness, 27, of 35 Dunn Road, was charged with breaking and entering in the nighttime and malicious destruction of property over $250. Police say a second suspect managed to get away, despite a perimeter that was set up around the building and canines on scene.Lt. Joseph Cafarelli said, for the past month, officers have been staking out the building on the VFW Parkway due to reports of copper being stolen from the now-defunct dog race track.”We’ve been constantly getting calls since the racing stopped, but every time we went there, everything was secure and the building was locked up,” he said. “So we assumed it was some sort of malfunction.”Turns out that the alleged thieves had cut off the previous lock on one of the buildings doors and replaced it with a lock of their own.”They were going shopping there for the past month,” he said.When the tip came in to police around 8:30 p.m., Cafarelli said officers surrounded the building in an effort to catch the sneaky duo.”The dogs weren’t able to track the other suspect, but detectives are following up the investigation with fingerprints,” he said.Anyone with information on the incident is asked to call the police at 781-284-1212.