Neighbors of Woodland Park called 911 at about 11:30 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 28, to report a fire there, and when police and firefighters arrived, they found an SUV near the Middlesex Road entrance engulfed in flames in a fire that was beginning to spread to nearby brush.
Darien police put out the fire in the leaves and brush surrounding the sport utility vehicle, and firefighters from the Noroton Heights Fire Department doused the flames that destroyed the SUV itself.
Police gave this account of the incident and investigation:
A Greenwich man, 52, told police that his 2008 Subaru Forester, which had been locked, was stolen from his driveway, perhaps at about midnight on Wednesday, Aug. 24, when he reported it missing, although he couldn’t be sure when it was taken. He still had the keys, he said.
The vehicle was found about 100 yards inside the park from the Middlesex Road entrance, which is chained off. The SUV was probably driven around the chained part of the path, police said. The neighbors who called 911 live on Chester Road and Middlesex Road.
With arson suspected, police called in the town fire marshal, who asked for help from the state fire marshal. That, in turn, brought in state police to also work on the case, and Greenwich police are involved as well, a Darien police spokesman said.
Police do not know why the vehicle was stolen or why it was set on fire. As of Monday afternoon, police expected to search the wreck to try to find out more.