Public Safety

Two More Catalytic Converters Stolen from Vehicles in Darien Parking Lots

Locked Bicycle Valued at $919 Stolen from Noroton Heights Railroad Station

Latest Report of Check Stolen From Mailbox, Washed and Cashed for Larger Amount

ID Theft From Darien Man Results in Fraudulent Transaction by Phone, Attempt to Cash Check

Corbin Drive Closes to Vehicle Traffic 8 AM to 2:30 PM, Wednesday, Feb 16

More Reports From Around Town of Catalytic Converters Stolen From Parked Cars

Porsche Stolen Overnight, Apparently Unlocked and With Keys Inside, Found in North Salem, NY

Check From Another Mailbox in Darien Stolen, Washed, Fraudulently Cashed

Police: Crack Pipes Found in Possession of 63-Year-Old Darien Man

Police: Man Pushed Victim to Ground in Domestic Incident

Catalytic Converters Stolen from Vehicles in Office Lot at Night, School Lot During the Day

Police: She Forgot Her Wallet in a Store. By the Time She Spoke to Cops at the Store, a Card Was Already Used.

Police: Man Sends Three Texts in Violation of a Protective Order, Resulting in Felony Charge

Mercedes, Unlocked and With Keys Inside, Stolen in Darien, Tracked to New Jersey Town Two Hours Away

Two More Mailbox Thefts, Checks Washed, Rewritten and Cashed in Each Case

Public Safety

By David Gurliacci | February 25, 2022

Bicycle Thefts 2022

By David Gurliacci | February 25, 2022

Thefts from Mailboxes 2022

By David Gurliacci | February 17, 2022

Public Safety

By David Gurliacci | February 17, 2022

Business

By DARIENITE.COM | February 15, 2022

Public Safety

By David Gurliacci | February 15, 2022

Darien Motor Vehicles Stolen 2022

By David Gurliacci | February 13, 2022

Public Safety

By David Gurliacci | February 13, 2022

Public Safety

By David Gurliacci | February 11, 2022

Darien Domestic Incident 2022

By DARIENITE.COM | February 11, 2022

By David Gurliacci | February 9, 2022

Credit Card Theft 2022

By David Gurliacci | February 8, 2022

Public Safety

By David Gurliacci | February 8, 2022

Public Safety

By David Gurliacci | February 3, 2022

Public Safety

By David Gurliacci | February 3, 2022

News related police, law enforcement agencies, courts, as well as Darien’s fire departments, ambulance service and emergency management activities

The two latest thefts of catalytic converters from vehicles in Darien parking lots took place over a six-day period last week. The first theft took place on Monday, Feb. 14 in the parking lot of Whole Foods Market at 150 Ledge Road. The victim told police he parked his vehicle there at 3 p.m. When he returned at 9:45 p.m., he noticed that the muffler was noisy. The second theft took place in one of the parking lots at the Darien Professional Building at the corner of Hecker Avenue and Noroton Avenue.

Surveillance video at Noroton Heights Train Station shows a suspected thief riding a stolen bike from the parking lot onto Heights Road last Thursday, Feb. 17. Neither the surveillance video nor owner’s lock on the bike kept it from being stolen. Valued at $919, it rolled into the station at 8:13 a.m. When the owner returned at 7:45 p.m., it was missing. Police said the surveillance video shows the suspect wearing a green jacket and white shoes.

A man who put a check in his own mailbox on Richmond Drive on Jan. 29 told police that it had been cashed for a much larger amount and to somebody he didn’t know, police said. The man called Darien police on Feb. 9, after he saw his bank statement and noticed the discrepancy. Other recent reports of checks stolen from mailboxes in town:

—Check From Another Mailbox in Darien Stolen, Washed, Fraudulently Cashed (Feb.

An officer from a police department in Pennsylvania told a Lake Drive resident that a male tried to cash a fraudulent check using a phony Connecticut identification card “that had all of the victim’s information on it,” Darien police said. The man told Darien police on Feb. 7 that in addition to the call from police in Pennsylvania, his bank told him about a fraudulent phone transaction, Darien police said.

The Darien Police Department announced Tuesday that Corbin Drive, the downtown street where Darien Post Office is located, will be closed to vehicle traffic at the end of the street nearest the Post Road from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 16. The Post Office and businesses on the street can be reached by entering and leaving Corbin Drive from the Old Kings Highway end. The reason: a large amount of planned construction activity. The Corbin District project is particularly active these days on the entire side of the street opposite the Post Office.

Catalytic converters were stolen from four different vehicles at three locations in Darien, police were told during a four-day period last week, from Feb. 7 to 11. Two vans owned by the same business on Noroton Avenue had their converters removed (another pair of catalytic converter thefts happened to a business’s vans at 320 Post Road on Feb. 3). The vans at the Noroton Avenue business had last been driven on Jan.

A Contentment Island Road resident said a set of keys was left in his 2018 Porsche Cayenne, but he didn’t know if he locked the SUV before it was stolen sometime overnight, Saturday to Sunday, Feb. 5 to 6, police said. According to Darien police:

Surveillance video from a neighbor shows a male looking into vehicles at 1:30 a.m. that Sunday morning. At 2:19 p.m. that day, New York State Police found the sport utility vehicle in North Salem, New York. Darien police detectives are investigating the incident.

Sometime in the last week of January, a check was stolen from a Brookside Road resident’s mailbox, then washed, a larger amount of money written on it and a different payee, then cashed, Darien police said. According to police:

The victim said he put an envelope containing the check in his mailbox on Jan. 26. Then, on Feb. 1, he looked at his bank statement, which showed the check was cashed for a larger amount and made payable to someone he didn’t know.

Officers who were called to assist a 63-year-old man in the Darien Close condominiums off of Old Kings Highway North found crack pipes with him and arrested him, police said. Police gave this additional account, including accusations not proven in court:

While one officer was assisting the man, other officers saw near the man’s feet a broken glass pipe of a type commonly used to smoke crack cocaine. An officer also saw a glass pipe on the dresser of the man’s bedroom. The man was arrested on a charge of possession of drug paraphernalia and taken to Darien Police Headquarters. He was released on a written promise to appear Feb.

A 53-year-old Darien man got into an argument with another person while they were walking downtown, then pushed that person to the ground, police said. Darien police gave this additional account, including accusations not proven in court:

A witness saw the confrontation and intervened after seeing the victim on the ground, screaming for help. At 10:05 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 20, police were called to the area outside 1077 Post Road, where Scena Wine Bar is located. The victim didn’t report being injured, and police saw no indication of an injury.

Catalytic converters in Darien are again the targets of thieves, who have been stealing them wherever and whenever they can — during the day, at night, at a school parking lot, at an office building parking lot. It’s not just happening in Darien. According to an Associated Press report on Jan. 2:

“Thefts of the exhaust emission control devices have jumped over the past two years as prices for the precious metals they contain have skyrocketed. Thieves can expect to get anywhere from $50 to $300 if they sell the converters to scrap yards, which then sell them to recycling facilities to reclaim the precious metals inside, including platinum, palladium and rhodium.”

A shopper at Trader Joe’s put down her wallet when she was getting her shopping list out of it, then forgot about the wallet — which was stolen, resulting in her bank cards being used. Darien police gave this account of the incident:

The woman called police at 1:09 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 1, before she left the store at 436 Post Road. Police spoke to her there. She said that she’d put the wallet on a food display, then at checkout realized it was missing.

A 51-year-old man living in Norwalk texted a person in Darien in violation of a restraining order on three occasions, Darien police said. Police gave this account of the matter, including accusations not proven in court:

Police spoke with the man “and determined he did make contact with the victim, and that this was a violation of the restraining order,” police said in an announcement. The announcement said the matter was considered a “domestic incident,” indicating the victim was someone who was or had been close to him, possibly someone who had lived in the same household. Officers arrested him on Jan. 31 on a charge of violating a restraining order, a felony.

A Ridge Acres Road resident told police that his 2020 Mercedes AMG car was stolen from his driveway sometime overnight from Monday to Tuesday, Jan. 24 to 25. The car had been unlocked and with a spare set of keys left inside. The vehicle was tracked with GPS and found (unoccupied) in Parlin, New Jersey, a town about two hours away from Darien. The vehicle was towed from the scene.

« August 2022 »

In the latest cases of mailbox thefts, checks were stolen before mail carriers picked them up, then the checks were washed and higher amounts added that were given to people with different names, police said. A check put in an envelope placed in a home mailbox on Bittersweet Lane was stolen, washed, rewritten and fraudulently cashed, police said. The victim told police he put the envelope in his home mailbox on Jan. 9. He noticed on Jan.