A Somerville man was charged with stealing equipment from a production company’s trailer just hours after this year’s Independence Day festivities on the Esplanade, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley announced.

SALIFU AL-HASSAN (D.O.B. 1/5/85) was arraigned yesterday in Charlestown District Court on one count each of of larceny over $250 and breaking and entering in the nighttime for the incident. District Court Judge Eleanor Sinnott set Al-Hassan’s bail at $750, but ordered that he be held in custody on a detainer brought by the Department of Probation.

Assistant District Attorney Vincent DeMore told the court that, at about 1:00 a.m. on July 5, a Massachusetts State trooper assigned to the July 4 concert and fireworks celebration on the Esplanade was called to respond to a robbery in progress in the rear of the Hatch Memorial Shell.

Upon arrival, the trooper saw a group of people standing around the defendant. The victim, who works for an organization that produces the yearly event, told the trooper that he’d briefly left one production trailer bring items to a different trailer in the secure backstage area.

When the man returned to his trailer about five minutes later, he found that the trailer door was open and a Dell Studio 15 laptop computer, an Apple iPhone, and a Motorola two-way radio were missing.

The victim immediately informed a co-worker of the theft. The pair decided to split up and search the area for the missing items. A short time later, the co-worker saw a man walking near the river with a bulge under his t-shirt that looked like a laptop. That witness confronted the suspect – later identified as Al-Hassan – and took the laptop from him. The co-worker shouted for assistance and security personnel and the victim responded to help detain the defendant until the trooper’s arrival.

After the victim positively identified the laptop as belonging to him, the trooper took Al-Hassan into custody. A subsequent search of Al-Hassan’s person yielded the missing iPhone. The two-way radio was discovered in the area where the witness first spotted the defendant.

Al-Hassan is represented by attorney Daniel Toscano. He is expected to return to court on July 21.