Police: Woman broke into Perryville post office to get her mail

PERRYVILLE — A woman is facing criminal charges after she allegedly shattered the front window of the U.S. Post Office building in downtown Perryille — well after midnight — because she wanted to retrieve her mail despite the post office being closed for business, according to police.

Investigators identified the suspect as Helen Marie Caparella, 37, of Perryville.

The investigation leading to Caparella’s arrest started at approximately 1:30 a.m. on May 27, when Perryville Police Department officers went to the post office in the 600 block of Broad Street after receiving a burglary-in-progress dispatch, police reported.

“Upon arrival, officers observed the front glass window broken out with a significant amount of blood located on the sidewalk. Responding officers quickly cleared the building to ensure that the building was empty,” outlined Perryville Police Department Chief Robert Nitz.

Assisted by a Maryland Transportation Authority Police officers, PPD officers canvassed the area and spoke to a witness, police said. Within moments after starting the canvass, officers found Caparella and noticed that she had a “significant injury to her right hand, which was consistent with being cut by a sharp object or glass,” and that she appeared to be “extremely intoxicated,” police added.

“She made statements that she just wanted to get her mail from the post office box,” Nitz said.

Officers dispatched an ambulance crew, which drove Caparella to Upper Chesapeake Aberdeen for treatment to her wounded hand, police reported.

Caparella is charged with second-degree burglary, fourth-degree storehouse burglary and malicious destruction of property valued at less than $1,000, according to Cecil County District Court records.

Caparella spent three nights in the Cecil County Detention Center on no bond, before she was released on an unsecured $5,000 bond on May 30 after her bail review hearing earlier that day, court records show. Cecil County District Court Judge Clara E. Campbell presided over that bail review proceeding, according to court records.