RICHMOND, Ind. — A Richmond man has been charged with burglary after he was found in a home by its owner.
The suspect told police he was leasing the residence.
According to court documents filed in Wayne Superior Court earlier this month, 47-year-old Robert Bragg was charged with one count of burglary, a Level 5 felony, in relation to the mid-May incident in Richmond.
On the evening of May 27, deputies from the Wayne County Sheriff’s Department were called to a Richmond home on a call of a burglary in progress.
The person who called law enforcement, identified later as the owner of the home where the burglary reportedly occurred, told them that he went to the property and found two people inside: a man later identified as Bragg and a woman. The documents said that the homeowner was holding the two in the house until law enforcement arrived.
In an interview, the woman told deputies she had been seeing Bragg for a couple of months. Bragg reportedly told the woman he was renting the Richmond house.
“I don’t know. I don’t know,” the woman reportedly said during the interview. “(The homeowner) said I broke into his house. I did not break into anything. I can’t go to jail, I have three kids.”
Bragg also told law enforcement in an interview that he was renting the Richmond home from a guy named Michael. Bragg also told deputies that he did not know who the homeowner was and that Bragg “was in a house that he was not supposed to be in.”
Bragg said he had previously been arrested on burglary charges. This was in relation to a reported incident in Richmond in September 2023. Bragg was eventually charged for this case earlier this month.
After Bragg told deputies where a reported lease agreement was in the home, deputies retrieved the lease agreement. The court documents state that there were reported whiteout marks on the lease agreement, the location of the rental agreement was listed as the wrong address and other discrepancies. The homeowner told deputies that he had never seen the lease agreement before, and the signature on the document was not his.
Over the course of the investigation, deputies searched the vehicles linked to Bragg and the woman. In the cars, the documents indicated that multiple items belonging to the homeowner were located in the vehicles, including:
- Two glass elephants
- A box of coins
- Boxes of knives
- .38 caliber handgun
- Vases
- Boxes with liquor
In an additional interview, Bragg told deputies that the home was listed on Craigslist as a “handyman special for rent.” Bragg claimed he was paid for improvements on the home through a decrease in rent.
The homeowner told law enforcement he had been staying with his girlfriend at another home in Richmond. The homeowner stressed that he “comes and goes to the residence but had not been staying there.”
“(The homeowner) stated that no one had permission to be at the residence,” the documents said.
According to court documents, an initial hearing for Bragg is scheduled for June 25.
