A 33-year-old Islip, N.Y. man has been charged with stealing lottery tickets from a Darien gas station in August, about seven weeks after he was captured in Fairfield after he was accused of stealing lottery tickets there.
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See also:
Thief Grabs Lottery Tickets & Runs from Darien Gas Station, Suspected in Other Towns (Aug. 9)
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Darien police said similar thefts of lottery tickets have taken place in Norwalk, Bethel, Trumbull and Ridgefield at about the same time as the Darien and Fairfield incidents.
Report of Fairfield Incident
A report in the Fairfield Citizen described the Fairfield police arrest this way (including accusations police gave that were not proven in court):
Ryan Ramundo (Darien Police arrest photo)
On Wednesday, Aug. 10, a man — later identified as Ryan Ramundo of Islip — grabbed 15 lottery tickets priced at $370 from the counter at a Shell gas station at 2424 Black Rock Tpk. in Fairfield. The store clerk called police at 5:15 p.m.
Ramundo fled in a black sedan headed north on Black Rock Turnpike. The store clerk was able to get a partial license plate number. A police officer stopped the car as it got on an entrance ramp headed for the northbound lanes of the Merritt Parkway. A quarter of a mile later, the officer stopped the car.
Inside were Ramundo and another man, Nicholas Sileo, 31, who is apparently homeless. Ramundo was charged with was charged with second-degree larceny, conspiracy to commit second-degree larceny, theft of plates, and engaging in pursuit. Sileo was charged with conspiracy to commit second-degree larceny. Each man was initially held on $10,000 bond.
Darien Incident
Darien police described the theft in Darien and subsequent events with the following account (again, including accusations not proven in court):
The suspect leaving a car at the gas station (from video surveillance records)
A week before the Fairfield arrest, on Wednesday, Aug. 3, a man later identified as Ramundo (by his looks and by distinctive tattoos), walked into the Exxon gas station at 1358 Post Road (near Interstate 95 Exit 11) and asked to use the restroom.
Close-up picture from the Exxon gas station’s video surveillance recording showing the suspected thief.
A few minutes later, the man returned and asked if the store sold birthday cards. He also asked for directions on getting onto the Interstate 95 southbound traffic lanes.
He then asked for $240 worth of “5X the Money” scratch-off lottery tickets, which cost $5 apiece.
The clerk got 48 tickets from a dispenser and put them on the counter — and Ramundo scooped them up, ran out of the store and got in a dark, four-door Honda sedan that also held a passenger. The thief then sped off in the car.
The suspect rushing out of the store (from video surveillance records)
Shortly before the theft a similar theft had taken place in Norwalk. Also just before the Darien theft, $100 in winnings from similar stolen lottery tickets were cashed at another Darien gas station convenience store, the Gulf station at 1044 Post Road (on the corner of Post Road and Corbin Drive). Police believe the same two men were involved in cashing in those tickets.
Darien Arrests
When Darien police determined that Ramundo, arrested a week later in Fairfield, was the thief in the Darien case, they applied for and eventually received an arrest warrant charging him in the Darien theft.
On Monday, Sept. 26, Darien police went to a probation meeting for Ramundo in Bridgeport, where they served him with the warrant and arrested him. A $10,000 bond was set, which Ramundo did not post.
The passenger in Ramundo’s car was not charged with any crimes in Darien because police didn’t have sufficient information that he’d been involved in any crime.
The suspect at the Exxon gas station (from the store\’s video surveillance camera)