The Concord police responded to a report of suspicious activity on South Main Street on Sunday night and found seven stolen handguns, several drugs and an 8-year-old boy in a tent belonging to two homeless people, according to the police.
The homeless pair, Christopher Benson, 31, and his girlfriend, Victoria Voydatch, 29, were arrested, and each was charged with more than 20 offenses, including multiple counts of receiving stolen property and possession of controlled drugs.
The 8-year-old boy is Benson's son with his wife, who lives in Weare, according to a police affidavit. The boy had spent the night in the tent on a single bed with his father and Voydatch, the police affidavit said.
The police charged Benson with child endangerment because the boy had access to a loaded gun, the affidavit said. The boy was released to his mother after the police called her.
Benson and Voydatch were arraigned in Concord District Court yesterday and ordered held on high bail. Judge Gerard Boyle set Benson's bail at $100,000 cash only and Voydatch's at $125,000 cash only on the most serious charges and $5,000 personal recognizance on the others.
The two had been living in a tent at 287 S. Main St., the old WoodPro Co., the police said.
What troubles the authorities now, prosecutor Tracy Connolly said in court yesterday, is that Voydatch admitted to stealing three other guns but couldn't find them Sunday night. She told the police she had misplaced one and buried the other two for safekeeping, according to court records.
But when Voydatch took officers to retrieve the two buried guns, they were gone, Connolly said.
"She has put three guns into Lord only knows whose hands because of her actions," Connolly told Boyle yesterday.
While those guns remain missing, the arrests of Benson and Voydatch did help the police recover evidence from several local thefts, according to court records.
The police charged each of them with seven counts of receiving stolen property for having guns that Voydatch admitted to stealing from her father's Dunbarton home, according to a police affidavit.
Benson and Voydatch were also charged with receiving stolen property for allegedly having antique coins that were taken from Steven Voydatch's Dunbarton house, the police said.
The police found three solar panels that had been taken from an East Side Drive home. That was another count of receiving stolen property.
A prescription for Simvastatin, which is used to control high cholesterol, an old Concord police badge and tie tack, as well as the tent and two lanterns at the scene, were tied to a Commercial Street burglary the police had been investigating.
Prescriptions for codeine and Lidocaine patches, in addition to jewelry found in the couple's living area had been taken from a home where Benson and Voydatch had been allowed to stay in October, the affidavit said.
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