Pedro Oristanio, 29, of Darien unsuccessfully tried to abduct a woman described as his ex-girlfriend in Stratford on Tuesday night, and when that idea somehow failed, he set fire to the woman’s car, parked near the woman’s home, Stratford Police said.
Pedro Oristanio, 29, of Darien (Stratford police arrest photo)
Police detectives went to the scene and determined that Oristanio might be headed to one of three locations out of town, one of them in New Canaan, where police picked him up, police said.
He was taken to Stratford Police Headquarters, where he was charged with attempted kidnapping, unlawful restraint, second-degree arson, first-degree criminal mischief and second-degree threatening, police said.
He was initially held on $250,000 bond.
Editor’s note: This article appears here late for this reason: Darienite.com made many attempts to reach a spokesman for Stratford Police directly. We also called Stratford Police Chief Joseph McNeil, who eventually responded, late Thursday afternoon (about 24 hours after the first call to his office), to a second phone call. He provided the news release. McNeil said the spokesman, Capt. Frank Eannotti, was out of the office. Numerous police officers and officials in the department, who kept transferring calls to Eannotti’s office phone, didn’t appear to know that.