A 31-year-old man with a strong odor of alcohol in him didn’t end up taking the 2015 Ford F550 pickup where police found him after an alarm went off, but he did vomit “heavily” in the passenger compartment, police said.
So much for that new car smell.
Darien Police arrest photo for Andrew Wood, 31, of Twist Hill Road in Newtown
Darien police gave this account (consisting of accusations not proven in court) of the matter:
The owner of the pickup was woken up at 3:23 a.m. Sunday when the car alarm in it sounded, and police were called to the residence, which is down a long driveway off the Post Road. Five officers arrived at the scene and walked down the long driveway.
A man in the Ford pickup, with the hood of a hooded jacket over his head, was in the driver’s seat leaning over the console area. The driver’s side door was wide open, but the man didn’t appear to have heard police officers approaching.
The man had been getting in and out of the driver’s side seat, and the owner thought the man was trying to steal it.
When the hooded man noticed police, he said, “I’m not stealing this truck,” and “I’m just trying to get home,” and “This is my boss’s vehicle.” The resident later said he didn’t know the man and the man wasn’t his employee.
The man, soon identified as Andrew Wood, 31, of Twist Hill Road in Newtown, had driven his own vehicle, a 2007 Subaru Forrester, up the long driveway. The Subaru had a flat right front tire and was damaged in the front. Police didn’t find any spots in the area that the Subaru may have hit, and police in Stamford, not far away, also looked but found nothing on their side of the border.
Wood, who appeared to be highly intoxicated, repeatedly said he had no idea how he got to the residence or why he was in the Ford pickup which was unlocked but without keys inside. The pickup truck is valued at $55,000. Wood didn’t know his own tire was flat and said he didn’t know if he hit anything with it.
Wood was charged with third-degree burglary and criminal attempt at first-degree larceny. He was initially held on $10,000 bond, but at 1 p.m. Sunday, a bail commissioner lowered the bond to nothing, and Wood was released on a promise to appear on Dec. 23 in state Superior Court in Stamford.