SALEM — A Salem teen who, police say, seized the opportunity when he spotted a forgotten handbag on a courthouse X-ray machine last week will now spend nearly a month locked up without bail.
That's because Marshall Glover, 19, was already on probation for other crimes. Now probation officers want a judge to revoke that probation.
And the next available hearing date is not until Oct. 21.
Glover, of 52 Peabody St., was arraigned yesterday in Salem District Court on a charge of larceny from a building — the very same courthouse. He pleaded not guilty.
Salem police Lt. Conrad Prosniewski told the judge how last Wednesday a woman visiting the court to pick up a friend had put her purse through the X-ray machine when court officers discovered she was carrying a cell phone. Cell phones are not allowed in the building, so she went to a nearby business to leave the phone, leaving her handbag behind in the machine.
Police say Glover, who was behind her in the line, stuffed his jacket into the machine (something that's not usually required of visitors), and when it came out the other side, he used it to cover the handbag and scoop it up.
Prosniewski said Glover and his unidentified female companion were seen on surveillance video going up to a courtroom and then leaving shortly thereafter, still carrying the purse under the coat. A number of detectives from the Police Department recognized Glover, as did a security guard who had seen him coming into the building several times that day.
During yesterday's hearing, Glover's pregnant girlfriend was ordered out of the courtroom when she burst out in derisive laughter as Prosniewski told the judge that the purse contained $1,000 in cash.
Glover's lawyer, Joan McAbee, said her client had recently been laid off but was looking for work and was in a high school equivalency course, "trying to get his life back on track," at the time of his arrest.
In addition to holding Glover pending the probation hearing, Judge Richard Mori set bail at $5,000 on the theft charge.
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