WINDOW INVASION IN ESTATE PROFIT: 'Popie' Arrested After Midnight Break-In and Mad Scramble for iPhone
Direct-to-Dockets data reveals a terrifying 4:30 AM burglary that ended with a shattered window, a frantic bedroom tussle, and a bizarre structural twist.
Enrique “Popie” Velasquez III (Instagram / VIPD)
By JOHN McCARTHY / St. Croix Sun News Reporter
MACHUCHAL — What began as a domestic dispute on St. Croix escalated into a terrifying midnight break-in, a physical struggle over an iPhone 16 Plus, and a full-scale police manhunt ending at the John A. Bell Adult Correctional Facility.
Superior Court dockets obtained fresh this morning by the St. Croix Sun News reveal that Enrique Velasquez III, widely known by his local moniker "Popie," faced Judge Yolan C. Brow Ross today for an Advice of Rights hearing. Velasquez is staring down heavy felony charges, including Second-Degree Burglary (Domestic Violence), Simple Assault and Battery, Destruction of Property, and Disturbance of the Peace.
According to sworn affidavits filed by the Virgin Islands Police Department’s Burglary Unit, the chaotic sequence of events kicked off on Friday night, May 29, following a domestic verbal dispute at a home in La Grande Princess. Seeking safety and a chance to de-escalate the situation, the female victim gathered her one-year-old daughter and fled to a friend's residence nestled in the hills of Estate Profit.
The reprieve, however, was violently short-lived.
At approximately 4:30 AM on Saturday, May 30, the household was shattered by loud, aggressive banging at the bedroom window. Surveillance footage captured outside the home documented a harrowing sight: a male suspect dressed entirely in black actively ripping a western bedroom window completely off its frame.
Moments later, "Popie" breached the structure.
As Velasquez lunged into the hallway, the homeowner heroically threw herself between the intruder and the frightened mother and infant. A violent struggle ensued across the mattress. In a desperate bid to cut off outside communication, Velasquez aggressively wrestled a purple iPhone 16 Plus away from the victim, inflicting physical minor injuries on the homeowner in the melee, before diving back out of the shattered window frame and vanishing into the pre-dawn darkness.
When VIPD detectives initially tracked the suspect via phone, Velasquez bizarrely claimed he was miles away in Barron Spot "cleaning fish."
Yet, as investigative dockets frequently reveal, the truth has a way of settling in unexpected places. In a surprising twist documented on May 31, the victim returned to the Wilbur H. Francis Command Station with an update. Upon returning to the Estate Profit crime scene to gather her clothes, she discovered the allegedly "stolen" $1,200 smartphone perfectly intact—wedged deeply into the physical gap between the headboard and the wall. The device hadn't been stolen at all; it had simply been swallowed by the structural chaos of the bedroom struggle.
While the recovery of the phone may deflate potential grand larceny angles, it does nothing to undo the severe structural damage or the terror of the forced entry. Realizing the net was closing, Velasquez turned himself into the Ancilmo D. Marshall Command Police Station late Sunday night.
Velasquez was remanded to the custody of the Bureau of Corrections at Golden Grove pending his scheduled court appearance today.
