Darienite (https://darienite.com/tag/darien-motor-vehicle-burglaries/page/2)
Three Fort Lauderdale, Fla. men already charged with breaking into vehicles in the Darien YMCA parking lot on Sept. 9 have now been charged with doing the same at the parking lot at Cherry Lawn Park on Sept. 7. When Oliver Chance, 24; Kenton Chance, 31; and Jerevonte Bray, 18 each appeared in state Superior Court in Stamford on Jan.
A thief got credit cards when he successfully stole from an unlocked car one night earlier this year, but when he used one at the Darien North rest stop on Interstate 95 that night, he was caught on camera and identified, police said. Police say their investigation was helped when he first used a stolen credit card when he was seen on surveillance video at the rest stop, then used his own debit card to buy a late-night snack at McDonald’s. The man police later arrested, Trevor Dixon, 28, of Bridgeport, was charged again on Monday, Dec. 7, this time for failure to appear in court on Oct. 8, police said.
Recent car break-ins on Saturday, Oct. 31 at Cherry Lawn Park (the second time windows of several vehicles were smashed at the park) look like the work of the Felony Lane Gang, Darien police said Friday in an announcement. Police said that in the past week break-ins that also look like the work of the gang have occurred in “dozens of similar incidents” in other area communities. Unauthorized charges have been made to credit cards and debit cards stolen from purses in the vehicles, also a mark of the gang. The brief statement on Friday said that cars in the parking lots of fitness clubs, parks and day-care centers are typically targeted.
Joel Mackinnon, 48, arrested Aug. 19 and charged with multiple thefts from unlocked cars parked within half a mile of the Noroton Heights Railroad Station, has been arrested again. The homeless Stamford man is charged with stealing from six more vehicles left unlocked overnight. Darien police said they received permission from a judge to issue an arrest warrant for Mackinnon, who has remained in jail since his August arrest. The thefts occurred on Aug.
After windows of four vehicles were smashed and thieves took purses at Cherry Lawn Park, Darien police are wondering if the “Felony Lane Gang” has paid the town another visit. On Oct. 31, four vehicles were hit in the park at 120 Brookside Road in a very short time. Purses were taken from the floors and seats inside, although none of the credit cards were stolen by the time police wrote up a report on the incidents. Weeks ago, Darien police said, the town was visited by members of the “Felony Lane Gang”, a national group of thieves who targeted items in vehicles.
A suspect has been identified in “at least four” recent vehicle burglaries, Darien Police Chief Duane Lovello told the Police Commission on Wednesday. The suspect was “stopped by the night shift, and they [detectives] will be doing a warrant” for the suspect’s arrest, Lovello said. Lovello may or may not have been referring to a male police stopped on the Post Road, a non-Darien resident was seen riding a bicycle at 12:14 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 11 on the Post Road. The male was stopped on the same night items were stolen from two vehicles parked in driveways on Goodwives River Road.
Someone used a softball-sized rock to smash the passenger-side window of a sport utility vehicle parked overnight on Wakeman Road on Thursday night, Darien police said. The incident occurred about seven tenths of a mile away from Pine Brook Lane, where someone entered three unlocked vehicles on the same night. No windows were smashed in the Pine Brook Lane cases. Unlike the Pine Brook Lane cases, quite a bit was stolen from the 2013 GMC Yukon sometime between 9 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. Thursday, according to the police report. A credit card was taken and used at 12:11 a.m. in New Haven on Friday, Oct.
Sometime overnight from Thursday to Friday, three unlocked cars parked in driveways on Pine Brook Lane were entered and had things taken from them, the victims told police. Of the three vehicles from which things were stolen on the very short street, the latest to be parked in one of the driveways came at 10:10 p.m., and the earliest point that someone found things missing in one of the vehicles was 6 a.m.
On the same night, someone used a rock to smash a passenger window of a vehicle parked on Wakeman Lane, then steal items valued at $1,800 from the vehicle
2014 BMW X3
The owner of a black 2014 BMW X3 was the first to report a theft. The 59-year-old woman came to Police Headquarters at about 7:30 a.m. on Friday, Oc. 16. She told police that shed parked her car in her driveway at 7:50 p.m. Thursday and returned to it at 6 a.m., Friday to find the center console open and a $20 bill and a small amount of loose coins missing from it.
Police are examining surveillance video of the theft of a backpack from an SUV parked in the YMCA parking lot Thursday by a 39-year-old Darien woman. The woman told police she parked her 2011 Chevrolet Tahoe in the lot at 5 p.m. and returned to it at 6 p.m., when she noticed the backpack was gone. It contained an envelope with $42 in cash and other personal information. The woman told police she’d locked the vehicle, but when police looked at the video they saw a person drive up next to the Tahoe. A person left the vehicle and entered the front, driver’s side door, then removed the backpack.
Three Florida men who committed “several ‘smash and grab’ type car burglaries” in Darien in the past week were arrested Thursday night, Darien police announced late Friday morning. Darien police, who made the arrest in West Haven with the help of police in that community, gave this account (with accusations not proven in court):
The men went into vehicles in parking lots in Darien that had purses and other items visible through the windows. Proceeds from some of the burglaries were found in the West Haven area, and Darien police identified the vehicle that suspects were using for the break-ins in town and for crimes in “several other cities and states.” On Thursday, Darien and West Haven police “conducted a focused surveillance” at several locations in West Haven, and at 11:30 p.m., a West Haven officer saw the vehicle police were looking for as it rolled down Elm Street in that town. It had been rented from a car rental business located at Fort Lauderdale Airport.
The practice of not locking cars overnight in Darien, as noted in some news report, was what attracted a Stamford man to do some nighttime stealing here, Darien police say. The man, Jabari White, 20, of Tresser Blvd., Stamford, told police that he got the idea of stealing from Darien cars after he saw a news report mentioning that the practice of not locking cars overnight was widespread in town. White, arrested Sept. 2, was the man police had said was seen on surveillance video at the Darien South rest stop on Interstate 95 on the night of many of the thefts from cars, as Darienite.com was the first to report. White is the second man recently arrested on charges of breaking into multiple vehicles overnight in Darien.
See also this newer report: Arrested Man Said He Heard on the News that Darien Cars Were Unlocked
An unlocked Ford Edge SUV parked at an Outlook Drive home was entered overnight on Aug. 17 to 18 (when many other unlocked vehicles in town were entered) and items were taken from it, police were told. The owner told police that the minor items stolen from the center console vehicle were found as the owner’s family took a walk on the street days later. About $8 in change was also taken from the center console. The Darien police report was unclear on how the vehicle owner knew the SUV, a 2010 Ford Edge, was entered on Aug.
A credit card stolen in one of the two dozen recent motor vehicle burglaries in town was used at the Interstate 95 South rest stop in Darien, pointing to a second suspect in the recent thefts, Police Chief Duane Lovello says. Lovello, speaking at the Darien Police Commission’s meeting last week, said the suspect, a man driving a vehicle, used one of the stolen credit cards “a short time” after it was stolen. Police have video surveillance records of the vehicle at the rest stop, he said. Police as of Thursday, Aug. 20, applied for an arrest warrant for the man, who they were able to identify Lovello said.
With publicity about the arrest last week of a homeless Stamford man charged with entering unlocked vehicles overnight in Noroton and Noroton Heights, more people are calling police to report thefts from their own cars, Darien police say. Joel Mackinnon, a 48-year-old homeless Stamford man, was charged Wednesday, Aug. 19, with thefts from vehicles in the wee hours of that day, and police are looking to see whether or not he was involved with similar overnight thefts in the same area. Here’s a rundown of the recent thefts:
Over the past four months, 17 motor vehicles were entered. Most were parked in driveways or streets within a mile of the Noroton Heights Railroad Station, where Mackinnon was arrested — on Miles Road, the southern end of Hollow Tree Ridge Road and Outlook Drive. Some occurred on William Street, and another was on Charles Street.
Not only was Joel Mackinnon, a 48-year-old homeless Stamford man, entering unlocked vehicles in Darien and taking things from them — when he found keys inside, he was stealing at least one vehicle, said Darien police, who arrested him early Wednesday morning. Police have been investigating more than 20 burglaries to vehicles (all or almost all of them unlocked) in the past two weeks. Here’s how they say they arrested Mackinnon, in an account which has not been proven in court:
Just after 3 a.m. on Wednesday, an officer patrolling Hollow Tree Ridge Road near Patton Drive saw a parked vehicle blocking the entire travel portion of Patton Drive. As the officer drove by, a suspect fled the scene. After the officer approached the vehicle, a 2012 Ford F-150 pickup truck, it was determined that someone was trying to steal it from a nearby driveway.