Charges Mounting for Accused Serial Car Burglars

Two area residents are finding themselves in trouble again after police charged each with additional counts of burglary and larceny stemming from an investigation after officers caught them red-handed thanks to concerned neighbors in the South End Road area earlier this year.

Middletown resident Justin Butler and Meriden resident Edward Goralnik Jr., both 19, were each charged with six counts of third-degree burglary and sixth-degree larceny as they appeared at separate times in Bristol Superior Court over the past week.

Goralnik, of 84 Broad St. in Meriden, remains in state custody at the Manson Youth Correctional Institution in lieu of $66,000 in bonds. Butler posted the bonds, according to state Department of Correction records.

“The latest charges stem from an investigation following the February arrest,” Sgt. Lowell DePalma said. “After obtaining a search warrant for their property, detectives found items tying them to six new cases that were not part of the original arrest.”

The two area residents found themselves in trouble after concerned neighbors along Strawberry Lane reported around 2 a.m. A police report released on Feb. 8 said the two men were seen by a neighbor running from a car in the Strawberry Lane area, just off Meriden Avenue.

Officers were given a description of the car, a white coupe with tinted windows, officers located the car moments later on South End Road, a police report said. Butler remained in the car, but Goralnik took off running, forcing police to call for a canine unit.

Canine Arno was able to track Goralnik to a nearby swamp, finding him hiding behind a tree. He was taken into custody without further incident, the police report said.

“It was later determined that the two had been involved in at least 10 car burglary thefts in the area, with victims on Strawberry Lane, Meriden Avenue and South End Road,” DePalma said in the February interview.

Both men have active cases and have not entered pleas at this time. They are both due in Bristol Superior Court later this month, police said.

Meriden police confirmed Tuesday that the two are subjects in a separate investigation into a string of thefts there, but could not comment further.