Gumshoe Investigation Leads to Arrest of Old North End Robber

The first robbery, in mid-May, felt like an anomaly, a frightening yet isolated incident. Then it happened again in June — and again, just three weeks later.

Each unfolded in similar fashion: A slender masked man walked into Jake’s ONE Market in Burlington’s Old North End not long after the store opened for the day, brought an item to the counter, then demanded cash, warning that he had a weapon in his pocket.

Combined, the robberies represented a mere $600 hit to the market’s bottom line. Far costlier was the sense of foreboding they provoked. Some employees quit, and, in interviews to replace them, managers began to have honest conversations about the job’s risks.

The spree reflected much of the crime plaguing Burlington in recent years, in which the toll is less about dollar amounts and more about how it makes people feel: unsafe. Many of the city’s lower-level crimes go unsolved because detectives at the understaffed Burlington Police Department don’t have the time to investigate them amid more serious cases.

The Jake’s case was different and not just because robberies, considered violent felonies, rank higher on the department’s list of priorities. As veteran detective Eric Kratochvil scoured the neighborhood for witnesses, he came to recognize the value of the local grocery store. He wanted to solve the case to bring some peace of mind to the store’s employees and the neighborhood it serves.

“That was really what was pushing me,” Kratochvil said in an interview last week. “I felt a lot of pressure to solve this before it happened again.”

Burlington police catalog hundreds of reported burglaries and retail thefts each year. Robberies, however — taking property through intimidation or threat of physical force — are less common. In recent years, about 30 have been reported annually, on average.

Unlike in the movies, robberies aren’t usually committed by people with dreams of striking it rich. Most are acts of desperation by those struggling with addictions or other high-stress situations, Kratochvil said. As a result, robbers often don’t do a great job of covering their tracks. Some are caught immediately after the crime, because they flee in a traceable car or police were already nearby. Others are identified after police release surveillance photos, and tips from the public flood in.

Then there are times when police don’t have any promising leads and the only way to crack the case is to keep “pushing and pushing and pushing and pushing” until that “lucky break,” Kratochvil said.

The detective was assigned to the Jake’s case in mid-June, shortly after the second robbery, and his initial task was to determine whether the crimes were connected.

Security footage showed the robber wore the same pair of black shoes, in the same distinctive way: the right one untied, the left one with the tongue folded over, revealing a white label on the underside. That convinced the detective he was looking for one person.

Kratochvil next needed to track the robber’s movements, both before and after the robberies. That would have been easier in Burlington’s downtown core, where the city maintains its own cameras and detectives have closer working relationships with many business owners. “I can let myself in and get the video as needed, or I can shoot a text message to somebody and get clips just like that,” Kratochvil said.

Finding footage in the Old North End would require a lot more legwork. Kratochvil spent days walking around the neighborhood in search of homes and businesses with cameras pointed toward the road.

Within a few days, Kratochvil had gotten footage showing that the robber had approached Jake’s from the south. Then, after the robberies, the suspect fled down Decatur Street, back into the heart of the neighborhood. That led Kratochvil to conclude that the robber likely lived nearby. But the detective hit a wall. Some cameras had already wiped footage from the days when the robberies occurred.

Two weeks passed. On July 6, Kratochvil received a text from his boss: Jake’s had been hit again. The third robbery unfolded just like the first two, though this time, the suspect apologized before he ran away.

Security footage showed that the robber was not wearing any of the same clothing. Instead, he wore dirty gray sweatpants with metal-capped drawstrings and a dark sweatshirt with a bleach stain.

Police would later recover both items near Decatur Street, suggesting that the suspect had ditched the clothing while fleeing down the familiar route.

Kratochvil repeated his journey through the Old North End in search of camera footage. He printed a map of the neighborhood and used highlighters to trace the suspect’s steps. He eventually located enough video clips to reverse-engineer the suspect’s approach to Jake’s from several blocks away. The trail ended on Cedar Street.

Kratochvil walked up and down the street searching for another angle that would allow him to see where the suspect went from there. Then, on July 9, the detective caught a break.

A Cedar Street resident he’d spoken with sent him a text. The resident had footage of a man matching the suspect’s description coming out of an upstairs apartment nearby. Screenshots showed a blurry figure wearing a dark top and light pants, the same as what the robber wore during the third theft. He could be seen more clearly a few moments later, on another camera farther down Cedar Street.

Kratochvil checked a police database for any cases connected to the address and came up with two names. One was Joshua Rheaume, 23, a suspect in a retail theft in May at the Home Depot in Williston.

Footage from that incident showed Rheaume leaving the store wearing black shoes that appeared to match those worn in the first two Jake’s robberies, down to the untied right shoe and the open tongue. He could also be seen wearing a pair of dirty gray sweatpants with metal-capped drawstrings — same as the suspect in the third robbery.

Kratochvil rushed back to the station and spent the evening of July 9 writing up an arrest affidavit, finally heading home around 1:30 a.m. He was back four hours later to brief his colleagues who were tasked with arresting Rheaume.

They found him that morning outside a convenience store in the Old North End. Rheaume was charged with three felony counts of assault and robbery, which carry a combined punishment of up to three decades in prison. Investigators did not find evidence that he actually had a weapon on him, which could have added another 15 years to any potential penalty.

Rheaume was ordered held without bail pending a weight of evidence hearing, during which his attorneys would have an opportunity to cast doubt on the case against him. Kratochvil spent hours reviewing his files last week in case he was called to testify. But Rheaume’s attorneys did not challenge his investigation.

Instead, a judge granted a request from Rheaume’s attorneys that he spend two weeks at a residential addiction-treatment center. On Monday, his father picked him up from the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans and drove him to Serenity House in Wallingford. He is due back in court on August 8.

Rheaume’s attorneys are now seeking to get him transferred to treatment court, which would require him to plead guilty in exchange for the chance to avoid prison, as long as he complies with the program’s strict requirements.

It is unclear whether prosecutors will support that request. Police in Chittenden County say they’ve interacted with Rheaume numerous times over the past two years, including once while he was overdosing. He does not have a criminal record, though, nor is he facing any other charges beyond a misdemeanor in the Home Depot case.

Jake’s employees were relieved when they learned of the arrest, according to the market’s owner, James Kerrigan.

Kratochvil, meanwhile, stopped by the store again a few days after the arrest — this time, as a customer. While waiting for a breakfast sandwich, he recognized another patron. It took a moment to realize why: The man had provided footage during the investigation.

“You live on Spring Street, right?” Kratochvil said. “Oh, yeah,” the man replied. “You’re the detective.”

That’s right, Kratochvil said: “Good news — we caught the guy.”

A few minutes later, the detective was back on the road and onto the next case.

This article appears in Jul 30 – Aug 5, 2025.

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