Darien Motor Vehicle Burglaries 2017

Car Window Smashed at YMCA: Wallet, iPad, Other Items Stolen

Sunglasses Valued at $200 Taken from Unlocked Car on McLaren Road South

Latest Overnight Thefts from Unlocked Vehicles in Two Areas of Darien

It Could Happen Here (and Has): Weekend Thefts of 8 Unlocked Cars & 2 High Speed Chases in Greenwich

Six Vehicles Entered Overnight, Thursday to Friday, on Thomasina Lane

Car Window Smashed While Victims in Restaurant — Bag, Wallet, Laptop Taken

SUV Stolen, Six Other Vehicles Entered Overnight Saturday to Sunday, All Unlocked

Here’s Where the Latest Thefts from Vehicles Took Place in Darien

Two Unlocked Motor Vehicles Burglarized in Noroton Heights

Unlocked Car Entered at Restaurant Parking Lot

Two Motor Vehicles Entered Saturday to Sunday and Police Ask for Public’s Help

Police Hope Stolen Car Found in Darien May Help Solve Motor Vehicle Burglaries Here

WORSE THAN EVER: 22 Motor Vehicle Burglaries in Darien on Three Nights Last Week

Parts Stolen from a New Honda Parked off of West Avenue

Two Unlocked Cars Stolen Last Week, One Found with GPS; and Five More Vehicles Entered

Public Safety

By David Gurliacci | August 9, 2017

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By David Gurliacci | August 1, 2017

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By David Gurliacci | July 26, 2017

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By GREENWICH FREE PRESS | July 17, 2017

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By David Gurliacci | July 17, 2017

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By David Gurliacci | June 29, 2017

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By David Gurliacci | June 20, 2017

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By David Gurliacci | June 14, 2017

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By John Paul Barce | June 8, 2017

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By David Gurliacci | May 11, 2017

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By David Gurliacci | May 1, 2017

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By David Gurliacci | April 19, 2017

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By David Gurliacci | April 18, 2017

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By David Gurliacci | April 13, 2017

Public Safety

By David Gurliacci | April 10, 2017

A Darien man returned to his car in the Darien YMCA parking lot just before 4:30 p.m. on Friday to find the rear passenger-side window had been smashed and a briefcase stolen from it with items valued at $1,400, including his wallet.

Darien police gave this account of the matter:

The 64-year-old man parked his gray 2012 Lexus RX on the east side of the parking lot at 3:05 p.m. Surveillance video showed that at 4:07 p.m., two black males got out of a Honda Odyssey with a license plate that appeared to be from Florida. One suspect wore a gray hoodie, black shorts and black sneakers; the other, a green shirt. The brown leather briefcase taken from the car contained a wallet, credit cards and identification. Also taken from the car: an umbrella and an iPad Air. The iPad was later found by Darien police officers by the side of the northbound entrance ramp at the Interstate 95 Exit 16 interchange.

Two pairs of sunglasses and a tote bag were stolen sometime overnight from Thursday to Friday, July 27 to 28from unlocked cars parked in a driveway on McLaren Road South, Darien police were told. A neighbor on the street told police Friday evening about finding a tote bag containing some property from a resident at 6 McLaren Road South. The victim said two cars, a silver 2017 Audi Q7 and a 2007 gray Audi A4, were parked unlocked in the driveway and seemed to have things missing from them. He was missing a pair of Ray Ban sunglasses, valued at $200. Neither the victim nor any neighbors reported hearing or seeing anything suspicious.

Overnight thefts from parked vehicles happened in two different neighborhoods in town on different nights last week. What they had in common is what these thefts normally have in common — the cars were unlocked when they were left outside overnight. Here are the details, according to police:
Tuesday to Wednesday:
On or Around Post Road Near Stamford
At 2757 Post Road, a white 2016 GMC Savana van and a blue 2010 Subarou Outback SUV were found to have open glove boxes sometime before 8:19 a.m. when the incident was reported to police. The owner told police he didn’t think anything had been taken. Police got no new information when they knocked on doors of neighbors to see if anyone heard, saw or knew of anything unusual overnight.

Police Darien Police Lock Your Car Every Time

Eight people in Greenwich went to bed Saturday night only to wake up Sunday morning to find their cars were gone, according to police there, and in two cases, the thefts resulted in car chases. Every single one of the cars was unlocked and with the keys inside. Greenwich police pointed out that similar thefts are going on in neighboring communities, including New Canaan and Darien. One Chased Car Flipped Over Several Times
Also, over the weekend there were two high speed police pursuits. One chase went to the service road on North Street opposite the reservoir, where the thief escaped on foot and remains at large.

Six motor vehicles — all of them unlocked — were entered sometime overnight from Thursday to Friday, July 13 to 14, on Thomasina Lane (a dead-end road off of Dubois Street), Darien police said. The first theft report was at 8:30 a.m. from 5 Thomasina Lane, and the next reports came soon after (except for the last, which came in at 12:52 p.m.). Usually, police canvassing a neighborhood after a theft from an unlocked vehicle find that other vehicles were entered. A white 2017 Lexus NX200T and a black 2011 Toyota 4Runner parked in the driveway of 5 Thomasina Lane were entered. About $5 in loose change were taken from each vehicle.

The right rear window of a 2017 Porsche Cayenne was smashed and items were taken from the car sometime before 7:45 p.m. on Monday, June 19, while the driver and passenger were in Bertucci’s restaurant. According to Darien police:

The victims were in the restaurant at 54 Post Road for about 40 minutes. When they returned to the blue car in the parking lot, they found the smashed window and the missing items: a tote bag, an Apple MacBook Pro laptop and a wallet that had $200 in cash in it. Police are continuing to investigate the incident.

A tan Lincoln Navigator was stolen from outside a house on Christie Hill Road sometime overnight from Saturday to Sunday, a resident told police. The vehicle was one of seven that police found had been entered on that street just over a a mile away on Phillips Place during the same overnight period. Not one of the vehicles was locked. Police gave these accounts of each theft:

The Navigator was one of two vehicles parked at the house at 120 Christie Hill Road. A wallet was taken from the other vehicle.

Police last week received these two reports of motor vehicles entered and items stolen from them. As usual, the vehicles hadn’t been locked. St. Nicholas Road
A purse was stolen from 18-year-old Cross River, N.Y. woman after she left it in a gray 2002 Lexus LS parked Thursday evening, June 8, outside a home on St. Nicholas Road.

The time of Darien police officers was taken up and thieves were rewarded when two more Darien residents neglected or decided not to keep their cars locked overnight when parked outside. Items were stolen from each vehicle. In each of these cases, police asked around the neighborhood, but no one saw, heard or knew of anything suspicious. The vehicles were parked outside of homes less than a mile from each other, near Hollow Tree Ridge Road and on either side of Interstate 95. 24 Charles St.

A 45-year-old Greenwich man forgot to lock his gray 2014 BMW 550xi in the parking lot of Shake Shack late one recent afternoon and returned to it about 20 minutes later. In that 20 minutes, someone entered it and riffled through the glove box, leaving papers on the car floor. It seemed nothing had been taken. The owner parked the car in the back part of the Shake Shack lot near Old Kings Highway South at about 4:10 p.m. on Thursday, May 4. By 5:13 p.m., police were called, but when they arrived, the man had already driven off. Police were able to call him and talk with him.

Two unlocked motor vehicles in Darien were entered on (it appears) two nights over the weekend, and Police Chief Ray Osborne is asking residents to help with overnight thefts, not only by locking cars, but by telling police when they find something suspicious. The motor vehicles were entered within a mile of one another. One was entered sometime between Saturday evening and Sunday evening, most likely in the several hours before dawn on Sunday, at 23 Chestnut St. The other was entered late Sunday evening at 41 Deepwood Road. Also within a mile of those two incidents, police became suspicious of three teenagers at a different location in town in the wee hours Sunday morning, but no criminal activity was seen, and police say they have no reason to suspect the boys had any connection to the incidents.

Days before almost two dozen cars were entered last week in Darien — and shortly after several others had been entered in town — a car stolen in Newtown was found in Darien. “The investigation into this recovery, and its potential ties to other criminal activity, both in Darien and around Fairfield County, is continuing,” Darien police said in a news release. Police gave this description of the incident:

A resident of the street told police on Monday, April 10 that the car, a gray, 2015 Audi A4, had been parked on the street since the day before and appeared to be abandoned. The driver’s side door was open just a bit, and items, apparently contents from the glove compartment or center console, were strewn about the inside. Otherwise, the car was in good condition.

Darien Police report an eye-popping 22 motor vehicles were entered in town in the course of last week — every single one of them unlocked — with items taken from some. Police believe all of the vehicles were entered overnight, either on April 11 to 12, April 13 to 14 or April 14 to 15. Police didn’t provide detailed descriptions of each incident — just released this long list (nothing was taken from the vehicles on the list unless specifically mentioned below):

Overnight Tuesday to Wednesday, April 11 to 12 — total of 14 vehicles

* 1 on McLaren Road

* 2 on Fairview Avenue

* 2 on Midbrook Lane

* 1 on Cherry St. — missing items Magahino brand wallet, valued at $150; three credit cards

* 3 on Robinson Street

* 3 on Hamilton Lane — missing items from one car: $10 worth of coins; $20 in paper currency; a pair of sunglasses, brand unknown, value unknown. * 2 on Charles St.

A 2017 Honda Accord parked in a lot downtown was broken into and parts were stolen from it — including the trunk lid — while the owner, a 75-year-old woman, was visiting a spa. Darien police gave this account of the incident:

After two hours in Lanphier Spa at 20 West Ave., the owner came out to her silver-colored Honda at 1:10 p.m. on Thursday, April 6 to find the lid of the trunk removed. Looking at the car further, the woman, a Stamford resident, realized that the driver side door lock had been forced open and her steering wheel airbag was missing. She immediately called police, who saw that the trunk lid had been removed from the assembly arms. The rear license plate was attached to the trunk lid and was also gone. No other vehicles in the area had been disturbed, and thefts (of any type) from vehicles in that parking lot are extremely rare.

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Two vehicles were stolen overnight in Darien last week — both unlocked, both with the keys left in them — and one was found in Waterbury with the help of a GPS system, town police said. All of these motor vehicle burglaries and thefts occurred within two miles from each other in the central part of town. All but one (the Oak Crest vehicle theft and the motor vehicle burglary on Roland Drive, a block to the south) occurred overnight last Tuesday to Wednesday. Darien police gave these descriptions of the incidents:
28 Shields Road, Overnight Tuesday to Wednesday, April 4 to 5

A white 2017 BMW X3 had been last seen by its owner at about 10 p.m. on Tuesday, April 4. It had been parked in the driveway of 28 Shields Road.