A lock was tampered with in order to break in to Mama Carmela’s Italian Deli sometime overnight Tuesday to Wednesday, Feb. 26 to 27, but not much money was taken, according to police.
At Tuesday’s meeting of the Darien Police Commission, Police Chief Donald Anderson described the burglary, adding additional details to the police announcement issued the same day.
At 5:15 a.m., Wednesday, a police officer on patrol was flagged down by two people in front of Mama Carmela’s at 1981 Post Road. They told the officer that when they arrived at work, they found the front-door lock had been damaged.
Inside, they found the cash register open and cash missing. Detectives went to the scene to process it for evidence.
The burglar or burglars didn’t get much money, Anderson said, although, like the police announcement, he didn’t specify how much.
The break-in didn’t involve any broken windows or other major damage, so no major repairs were needed, he said.
“This is what they call a ‘lock spinning burglary,'” he said. According to a 2003 article in the New Haven Register, “‘Spinning’ refers to use of a tool to remove locks from a door and simply walk inside.”
Anderson gave a general description of the process: “They just grab the lock assembly and kind of spin it, and that opens the door.”