Lynn burglar holding empty cash register finds police waiting outside

LYNN – Lynn Police arrested a man early Wednesday morning after he was caught outside a local diner with a cash register in his hands, according to a Lynn Police report.Police said a 25-year-old witness saw a Hispanic male, later identified as Carlos Alberto Rivera, 43, of 507 Summers St., enter Dea?s Diner, located at 898 Western Ave. through a window around 2 a.m. Wednesday.Officers arrived to find Rivera standing next to the diner with the register in both hands, and receipt tape “entwined around his legs,” the report said.Rivera had suffered very minor cuts to his hands, allegedly from breaking the window, but did not require medical attention, according to the report.Mem Sherifi, who runs the diner along with his wife Valerie, said he found blood droplets on the diner counter when he arrived at the property around 2:45 a.m., after being alerted by his neighbor and the alarm company of the burglary. In the six-year history of the diner, which serves casual Greek, Italian and American fare, this is the first break-in, he said.?I know the security system works now. The police were actually waiting for him outside,” Sherifi said.Sherifi said Rivera did a bad thing, but wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt.?There wasn?t big damage done. Maybe he was drunk and doesn?t remember, maybe he did it for his family,” he said.Sherifi said no cash was in the register at the time of the break-in, save some quarters and dimes he recovered from the ground outside the diner. The register was broken during the fracas, but Sherifi said he was able to fix it using a part from an older register before the diner opened for business at 6 a.m.Judge Ellen Flatley ordered Rivera held on $2,500 cash bail in District Court Wednesday on charges of felony breaking and entering at night and larceny over $250. He is due back in court on Aug. 10.Taylor Provost can be reached at [email protected].