Naples police chief refuses to answer questions on break-in at department

Police say a man found a way to defeat security features at the Naples Police Department earlier this month and wander around, eventually leaving wearing a uniform.

Naples Police Chief Tom Weschler refuses to talk about what happened at this police station while on his watch.

The man at the center of this story, Joseph Moulton, told WINK News on the phone that he blacked out. He said he doesn’t remember much about that night.

But someone with access to the department’s security system can’t forget.

That someone anonymously mailed WINK News an envelope with a return address to Naples City Hall. Inside the envelope is a series of screen grabs that look like they are from the Naples Police Department surveillance cameras.

One of them appears to be Moulton, walking around in a towel.

The envelope also contained an unsigned note directed at Weschler, who WINK News has been trying to talk to for weeks.

The writer demands an answer to a question on so many people’s minds.

How could someone get inside his police station and make himself at home?

The incident happened just after midnight on April 8th. The suspect is Moulton, 26.

How could someone get into a secure facility and nobody notices?

WINK News asked Naples Mayor Teresa Heitmann.

“It baffles me on how that could happen,” Heitmann said.

The police report, written on the morning of April 8th, said Moulton showed up before midnight and jumped a fence to get into a secure parking lot.

He began to pull the door handles of several cars, eventually getting into a city-owned pickup truck.

Then, according to the report, Moulton found a garden hose and placed the nozzle under a door, and turned the water on.

This flooded the west corridor of the department.

The sergeant who discovered the break-in reviewed the department’s surveillance. It was surveillance that no one was monitoring live.

The report says Moulton “was able to defeat the security features” and get inside.

But the detective who wrote the report did not say how.

That angered the person who sent WINK News the anonymous note.

“The man broke into and defecated inside a police department, had the time to take a shower, to flood the place with a hose, go through rooms and vehicles all while being on camera for hours without being noticed and the chief of police, you know the person that gets paid six figures to be in charge, has nothing to say about it,” the letter states.

WINK News receives a lot of notes and pictures from people; some sign their names while others don’t.

But what we received in this envelope, WINK News management decided, is credible enough because the material lines up exactly with Naples police’s reports.

And when provided with evidence of his exploits, Moulton admitted to being the person captured on video.

First, there’s a screengrab of Moulton in a gray shirt.

The report describes the suspect as a “white male wearing a gray shirt and jeans.”

A supplemental report indicates his “bald head, with very short hair on the sides.”

Then there’s Moulton in a towel.

That matches this line: Moulton “entered the men’s locker room, took a shower, and then proceeded to walk the corridors of the police department in a towel.”

And the third screen grab shows Moulton wearing what police believe is a stolen uniform shirt and bulletproof vest, and carrying a yellow bag.

That yellow bag could be the one mentioned in a separate incident report.

The officer who owned a yellow bag said when he entered the locker room, it “was no longer in my locker,” but “sitting on a table.”

And the bag was “full of wet clothing that did not belong to me.”

The officer’s discovery of his yellow bag led to finding “the hose on the side of the building running.”

This is the picture that came in the envelope.

WINK News does not know if there is an actual employee of the quarter at the Naples Police Department or if the sender or someone else created this.

And again, no one with the Naples Police Department will answer any questions.

And again, Moulton said, he can’t remember hardly anything about that night, except that he was drinking and using marijuana – almost word for word what he told police on April 8.

So he could not speak to what else is in the report: That detectives say he “defecated on the floor of the women’s bathroom.” And that he “also placed a police radio into a toilet, rendering it useless.”

The mayor is not the only city leader wondering how this could all happen.

So does the Naples City Manager Jay Boodheshwar, who spoke to WINK News by phone.

“The entire incident is extremely concerning,” Boodheshwar said.

But apparently, not concerning enough for the chief to publicly address what happened on his watch.

WINK News went to the Naples Police Department, hoping the chief might want to see the letter and images in the anonymous package, but after just a few moments, the officers inside sent WINK News away.