Update on Our Drone Capture: The Naked Truth

Yesterday we told you about a Blue Bell man found inside a Pocono Township home after police sent a drone to look for a burglar. The naked story plays like a bad version of American Horror Story: we have a murder house, hallucinations, and gratuitous nudity. Ryan Murphy would be proud.

According to the criminal complaint, as reported by the Pocono Record, Vincent A. Merlino, 34, told police he broke into a house on Upper Deer Valley Road because he thought it was a “murder house.”

The homeowner told police he left around 4 p.m. on Oct. 18 and came back to a broken window and a ransacked home, with doors barricaded by furniture and dried blood throughout. Police say Merlino had dried blood on his clothes and hands when he was taken into custody on Oct. 19, and that the basement door was blocked with furniture and mirrors were broken.

Merlino’s explanation, per the complaint: he was staying at a short-term rental on Pine Court, partying with several people, smoking methamphetamine and drinking. He told police he passed out, woke up outside and naked (as one does when smoking meth), and wandered the neighborhood yelling for help. Nobody answered when he knocked (I mean, would you?), so he broke a side window. He said he barricaded the basement door because he was scared and smashed the mirrors because he saw people in them. The next thing he heard was the police drone.

Neighborhood video reviewed by police shows him walking the neighborhood, knocking on doors and “loitering around the residence,” naked from the waist down (it was a chilly night so I guess it makes sense to keep your top on) in the officer’s words, “wearing some type of item with fake breasts on his top.” So basically he was dressed like some deranged Winnie-the-Pooh. The homeowner told police Merlino was wearing his wife’s clothes. We have no word on a video being available but it was a chilly night so there probably wasn’t much to see. The naked truth is that nobody in this story had a good night, least of all the guy whose window got broken.

Merlino is charged with first-degree felony burglary; second-degree misdemeanors of criminal mischief, theft by unlawful taking and indecent exposure; and third-degree misdemeanors of defiant trespass and loitering. His preliminary hearing is Oct. 28 before Magisterial District Judge Daniel Kresge. He is presumed innocent.

A correction: Yesterday’s edition, relying on the CrimeWatch posting, described the burglary charge as a second-degree felony. The Pocono Record, citing the criminal complaint, reports it as first-degree. A second correction: yesterday’s edition, also relying on the CrimeWatch posting, said he answered the door when officers called out. We have since been told by one source that is not what happened, and the complaint says only that he responded after officers made announcements from the front door.