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.
Darien police detectives are actively investigating the crime and would not say whether the thief shown on the video is a man or woman. There have been recent thefts from the same parking lot by what police say is a professional gang (law enforcement officials have called it the “Forgery Lane Gang”). In those cases, windows were broken and items, often purses, taken from vehicles.
Law enforcement authorities have said the Forgery Lane Gang would often target vehicles in parks, fitness centers and day-care facilities and would break glass windows to get at purses they could see through the windows.
Prevention
To avoid being a victim of those thefts, purses and other valuables can be put in the trunk, police have said in the past. But at Sleeping Giant State Park in Connecticut, thieves suspected of being in the gang opened up vehicle trunks to get at items of value.
In that case, police suspect the thieves saw the owner put the item in the trunk — so putting a purse, wallet or similar item in the trunk before arriving at a place where the car will be parked for a while might help, as inconvenient as that may be.
Usually, items stolen from vehicles in Darien are taken when the doors haven’t been locked. Thieves breaking windows is something that happens much less often.