News

A man is facing a possible 93-year prison sentence after being found guilty of raping an Arlington woman while she slept.

D.C. resident Ronald P. Berton, 37, was accused of crimes against two young Arlington women in 2008 and 2010. On Sept. 26, 2010, prosecutors say Berton entered unlocked first-floor apartment on the 2500 block of 20th Street N., where he found a woman sleeping. Berton raped the woman then stole items from the apartment and fled the scene. The woman, who had been drinking that night, did not wake up during the rape, but later woke up and found a condom next to her.


News

Someone had the nerve to break into the Greenbrier Baptist Church and steal a laptop last week, according to the latest Arlington County crime report.

BURGLARY, 01/05/12, 5400 block of S. 7th Road. Between 7:30 pm on January 4, and 6:20 am on January 5, an unknown subject entered through a basement window of a local church. A laptop computer was stolen. There is no suspect description.


News

More on Possible Shirlington Walmart — Three months after ARLnow.com reported exclusively that Walmart was eying a site for a possible store in Shirlington, County Board Chairman Chris Zimmerman is acknowledging that the county is aware of Walmart’s interest in Shirlington. This weekend the County Board is expected to discuss changing the zoning ordinance in order to prevent “big box” stores like Walmart from being constructed without Board approval. When the ordinance change was first advertised, the word “Walmart” was never mentioned. [WTOP]

Fire Station Open Houses This Weekend — Arlington’s 10 fire stations will each be conducting an open house between 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. on Saturday. The kid-friendly event is organized as part of Fire Prevention Week 2011. [Arlington County]


News

In this week’s Arlington County crime report, a suspected burglar was caught after a handyman working on a neighbor’s house saw the crime in progress and called police.

BURGLARY-ARREST, 09/15/11, 3500 block of N. 13th Street. On September 15 at 12:44 pm, a man was seen breaking into a residence. He was located by police and in possession of items from the house. Michael Porter, 53, of no fixed address, was charged with Burglary and Grand Larceny. He was held on a $1,500 bond.


News

A north Arlington resident came home this morning and reportedly found a man who was in the process of burglarizing his house. The burglar punched the homeowner in the face and fled with some sort of a metal box, according to police radio traffic.

The incident happened in the Yorktown neighborhood, a few blocks away from the Knights of Columbus and Yorktown High School. Police are now searching the area, trying to find the alleged burglar.


News

A group of men in ski masks threw a cinder block into a window at the Apple Store in Clarendon overnight, but they didn’t break the glass.

The men reportedly fled after they were unable to break into the store. Police set up a perimeter and searched the area after the apparent burglary attempt, but they could not locate the suspects.