On a day when a Darien family was moving items out of the house and into the garage, the husband mentioned to his wife that he’d noticed his daughter’s bicycle leaning against one of the garage doors and that he had moved it.
But as they talked, he realized that wasn’t his daughter’s bike at all. He went in the garage and discovered the girl’s bicycle wasn’t there — that was somebody else’s.
The 11-year-old girl’s bike had been stolen from the house on Middlesex Road near Hoyt Street, and a different one had been left behind. Darien police gave this further account of the incident:
A garage door had been open before the theft, which occurred sometime between 1 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. this past Sunday, Dec. 4. Nothing else appeared to have been taken or even disturbed, either from the garage or from inside vehicles there.
The stolen bike, a red, extra small “Hard Rock” brand valued at $500. The replacement: A rusty, maroon-colored bicycle with a black seat and its right handlebar grip missing.
Police detectives took the rusty bike for further processing, and they opened an investigation into the incident.