Doors were left open after a Hollow Tree Ridge Road house was burglarized, but the burglary wasn’t discovered until several hours after a resident arrived back home, and despite a neighbor noticing doors open, police said.
Jewelry was taken, but the resident was still compiling a list at the time the police report was written up.
Darien police described the burglary this way:
Residents were away from the home on the “600 block” of the street for days from Dec. 27 to Tuesday, Jan. 3, when a woman who lives at the house arrived there at about 8 p.m.
On Monday, Jan. 2, a neighbor had seen a package at the front door of the house and called to ask the complainant if she’d like her to bring it indoors because rain was expected the next day.
The complainant told the neighbor to lift up the garage door and put it in there. When the neighbor went to the front door, she saw several doors open, including at least one door from the outside breezeway leading into the house and a door from the breezeway going into the garage.
The neighbor called the resident back at 3:20 p.m. on Jan. 2 and left a voicemail message saying she was concerned about the doors being open and the heat on. It wasn’t clear in the police report when the complainant heard the message. Police later spoke with the neighbor.
When the resident arrived back home, she didn’t go upstairs to the second floor until about 2 a.m. — when she noticed three bedrooms had been ransacked, with items taken out of closets and drawers removed from dressers and nightstands. Numerous items were strewn around the floor.
She immediately called police, who looked through the house to make sure no suspects remained there. They didn’t find anyone.
The resident told police that several contractors had been visiting the house in recent weeks because they were in the early stages of a major renovation. The woman said she doesn’t suspect any of the contractors or any relatives or acquaintances committed the crime.
Police asked other neighbors if they had seen or heard anything suspicious, but no one reported anything.
The neighbor who noticed the open doors told police that later on Jan. 2, she noticed a second-floor light on in the house, but she wasn’t sure whether or not the light was on a timer (the kind of thing people do to prevent a burglary).
Police said there have been recent burglaries in New Canaan which might possibly be related to the one in Darien.