Darienite (https://darienite.com/tag/darien-motor-vehicle-burglaries-2015)
Three Fort Lauderdale, Fla. men already charged with breaking into vehicles in the Darien YMCA parking lot on Sept. 9 have now been charged with doing the same at the parking lot at Cherry Lawn Park on Sept. 7. When Oliver Chance, 24; Kenton Chance, 31; and Jerevonte Bray, 18 each appeared in state Superior Court in Stamford on Jan.
Recent car break-ins on Saturday, Oct. 31 at Cherry Lawn Park (the second time windows of several vehicles were smashed at the park) look like the work of the Felony Lane Gang, Darien police said Friday in an announcement. Police said that in the past week break-ins that also look like the work of the gang have occurred in “dozens of similar incidents” in other area communities. Unauthorized charges have been made to credit cards and debit cards stolen from purses in the vehicles, also a mark of the gang. The brief statement on Friday said that cars in the parking lots of fitness clubs, parks and day-care centers are typically targeted.
Joel Mackinnon, 48, arrested Aug. 19 and charged with multiple thefts from unlocked cars parked within half a mile of the Noroton Heights Railroad Station, has been arrested again. The homeless Stamford man is charged with stealing from six more vehicles left unlocked overnight. Darien police said they received permission from a judge to issue an arrest warrant for Mackinnon, who has remained in jail since his August arrest. The thefts occurred on Aug.
After windows of four vehicles were smashed and thieves took purses at Cherry Lawn Park, Darien police are wondering if the “Felony Lane Gang” has paid the town another visit. On Oct. 31, four vehicles were hit in the park at 120 Brookside Road in a very short time. Purses were taken from the floors and seats inside, although none of the credit cards were stolen by the time police wrote up a report on the incidents. Weeks ago, Darien police said, the town was visited by members of the “Felony Lane Gang”, a national group of thieves who targeted items in vehicles.
A suspect has been identified in “at least four” recent vehicle burglaries, Darien Police Chief Duane Lovello told the Police Commission on Wednesday. The suspect was “stopped by the night shift, and they [detectives] will be doing a warrant” for the suspect’s arrest, Lovello said. Lovello may or may not have been referring to a male police stopped on the Post Road, a non-Darien resident was seen riding a bicycle at 12:14 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 11 on the Post Road. The male was stopped on the same night items were stolen from two vehicles parked in driveways on Goodwives River Road.
Someone used a softball-sized rock to smash the passenger-side window of a sport utility vehicle parked overnight on Wakeman Road on Thursday night, Darien police said. The incident occurred about seven tenths of a mile away from Pine Brook Lane, where someone entered three unlocked vehicles on the same night. No windows were smashed in the Pine Brook Lane cases. Unlike the Pine Brook Lane cases, quite a bit was stolen from the 2013 GMC Yukon sometime between 9 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. Thursday, according to the police report. A credit card was taken and used at 12:11 a.m. in New Haven on Friday, Oct.
Sometime overnight from Thursday to Friday, three unlocked cars parked in driveways on Pine Brook Lane were entered and had things taken from them, the victims told police. Of the three vehicles from which things were stolen on the very short street, the latest to be parked in one of the driveways came at 10:10 p.m., and the earliest point that someone found things missing in one of the vehicles was 6 a.m.
On the same night, someone used a rock to smash a passenger window of a vehicle parked on Wakeman Lane, then steal items valued at $1,800 from the vehicle
2014 BMW X3
The owner of a black 2014 BMW X3 was the first to report a theft. The 59-year-old woman came to Police Headquarters at about 7:30 a.m. on Friday, Oc. 16. She told police that shed parked her car in her driveway at 7:50 p.m. Thursday and returned to it at 6 a.m., Friday to find the center console open and a $20 bill and a small amount of loose coins missing from it.
Police are examining surveillance video of the theft of a backpack from an SUV parked in the YMCA parking lot Thursday by a 39-year-old Darien woman. The woman told police she parked her 2011 Chevrolet Tahoe in the lot at 5 p.m. and returned to it at 6 p.m., when she noticed the backpack was gone. It contained an envelope with $42 in cash and other personal information. The woman told police she’d locked the vehicle, but when police looked at the video they saw a person drive up next to the Tahoe. A person left the vehicle and entered the front, driver’s side door, then removed the backpack.
Three Florida men who committed “several ‘smash and grab’ type car burglaries” in Darien in the past week were arrested Thursday night, Darien police announced late Friday morning. Darien police, who made the arrest in West Haven with the help of police in that community, gave this account (with accusations not proven in court):
The men went into vehicles in parking lots in Darien that had purses and other items visible through the windows. Proceeds from some of the burglaries were found in the West Haven area, and Darien police identified the vehicle that suspects were using for the break-ins in town and for crimes in “several other cities and states.” On Thursday, Darien and West Haven police “conducted a focused surveillance” at several locations in West Haven, and at 11:30 p.m., a West Haven officer saw the vehicle police were looking for as it rolled down Elm Street in that town. It had been rented from a car rental business located at Fort Lauderdale Airport.
See also: Darien Police Charge Homeless Man, 48, with Slew of Burglaries
Update 9:53 a.m.:
Darien police have announced that several vehicles in town were entered overnight Tuesday into Wednesday, Aug. 18 to 19, and they have a suspect in custody. They’re urging anyone who found their vehicle entered to tell them about it. “Numerous car burglaries occurred early this morning,” police said in a tweet. A suspect is in custody.
Sometime overnight from July 31 to Aug. 1, two vehicles were entered while they were parked in driveways on the same street. Both vehicles were unlocked and parked in driveways on Pear Tree Point Road:
In one case, a 2013 Mercedes SUV was entered by a burglar sometime between 10:30 p.m. on Friday, July 31 and 1:45 p.m. the next day. A total of $50 in coins was taken. When police asked other residents of the neighborhood if their vehicles were also broken into, they found the owner of a 2006 Audi A8, who said the center console in his car had been opened overnight by someone and items in it were out of place. But nothing seemed to be missing, he said.
Twice in one week Darien residents were given the ultimate put-down by a burglar or burglars — the thief didn’t want their stuff. Two town residents told police their cars, each parked in the victim’s driveway, were entered overnight from June 18 to 19 (last Thursday to Friday), and a third vehicle burglary occurred a few days before but in two cases the stolen items were found by the side of a road. All the burglaries were in the Noroton section of town, and two of them happened close by each other; the other, within a couple of miles. One or more credit cards from one of the stolen wallets was used at a Target store in Connecticut, and police in that community have a suspect, so Darien police may be charging someone in connection with at least one of the thefts. Here are descriptions of each incident as given by Darien police:
Warner Drive
A 2010 Nissan Sentra parked in the driveway of a home on Warner Drive between 11 p.m. Thursday and 9 a.m. Friday was entered after the front passenger window was smashed.