Darien Motor Vehicle Burglaries 2017

Here’s Where 3 Unlocked Vehicles Were Recently Entered in Darien, Items Stolen from Two

Multiple Motor Vehicles Entered Overnight in Two Areas of Darien

Sunglasses, iPhone Stolen from Unlocked Car on Sedgewick Ave

Window Smashed and Airbag Stolen from SUV in a Church Parking Lot

Police Chief on Recent Car Burglary Spree: 2 Arrests Helped, Other Towns Getting Similar Burglaries

Overnight Thefts Continue from Unlocked Darien Vehicles, Two Teens Arrested

Car Window Smashed in Parking Lot, Cash Stolen from Seat

After 20 Vehicles Entered, Several Thefts, 2 Cars Stolen in Two Weeks, Police Arrest 2 Teens

Former Police Chief Lovello: Unlocked Cars the ‘Bane of Our Existence’ in Darien Police Department

Nine Vehicles Entered, Some Missing Items & One Stolen in Southwestern Corner of Darien

Unlocked in Darien: Police Ask Residents to Lock Cars, Prevent Thefts

Car Stolen in Noroton Bay Neighborhood, Two Others Entered

Unlocked Vehicles Entered Overnight on Holmes Ave

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Police Darien Police Lock Your Car Every Time

Unlocked vehicles were entered overnight outside these three houses in town, thefts from two of the vehicles include a Jeep key fob, valued at $283, police said:
28 Sunset Road, Overnight Friday to Saturday, March 24 to 25
A 2011 Toyota Sienna minivan was entered sometime between 5:30 p.m., Friday, March 24 and 9 a.m., Saturday, March 25. About $8 in loose change and an iPhone charger were taken. The theft was reported to police on Monday, March 27 after the 53-year-old victim heard of other, similar thefts in the area. 26 Fitch Ave., overnight Sunday to Monday, March 26 to 27
A 2017 Audi Q7 parked outside 26 Fitch Ave. was entered sometime between 6 p.m. on Sunday, March 26 and 8:30 a.m. the following day, when the 36-year-old victim found the glove box and center console riffled through. Nothing appeared to have been taken.

There were two sets of overnight motor vehicle burglaries in Darien last week, one set in Noroton overnight Monday to Tuesday; the other on streets off of Mansfield Avenue overnight Friday to Saturday. Each of the burglaries are thought to be related to others on the same night. Darien police are working with Norwalk police, who also reported vehicles entered in Rowayton, within about 2.5 miles from the ones near Mansfield Avenue. Three vehicles that were unlocked and had keys in them were stolen from Rowayton, and a vehicle stolen from Torrington was found in Norwalk. Update, 6:37 p.m. — Norwalk police released this statement about motor vehicles entered and, in some cases, stolen in Rowayton:

Don’t make it this easy!

When a car (later recovered) was reported stolen from Rocaton Road several weeks ago, a resident of Sedgewick Avenue, not far away, decided to report the theft of an iPhone 6 and a pair of sunglasses from an unlocked car on the same night. The Rocaton Road theft was discovered by the owner of the car on the morning of Feb. 22. The man, 55, told police the iPhone was in his BMW 5 series, parked in his driveway overnight at 71 Sedgewick Ave., when the car had been entered sometime between 9 p.m., and the next morning at 8 a.m.

At first, when he found that the car had been entered and the glove box and center console had been riffled through, he didn’t think anything had been taken. Later, he realized that the iPhone, which he’d kept in the car to listen to music, and the sunglasses were gone.

A front, passenger-side window of an Acura RDX sport utility vehicle was smashed and a airbag was stolen from the SUV as it sat in a Darien church parking lot in the morning of Monday, March 6. The car was parked in a lot of the First Congregational Church of Darien at 14 Brookside Road and was entered sometime between 8:45 a.m. and about 12:05 p.m., when the owner returned to it. Nothing else was taken from the vehicle, and nothing appeared to have been taken from any other vehicle in the lot. There isn’t video surveillance in the lot, but police detectives processed the scene, looking for fingerprints and other evidence. The police report didn’t indicate if the airbag was on the driver’s or passenger’s side of the vehicle.

Darien isn’t unusual in getting hit with a recent rash of burglaries into unlocked motor vehicles, and it looks like the two teenagers recently arrested in town could solve a dozen of the recent burglaries, Police Chief Ray Osborne says. Speaking to the Police Commission at its regular meeting on Wednesday, Osborne said the two 17-year-old Stamford boys arrested by police admitted to quite a few burglaries. One of the boys had been found in Stamford inside an SUV stolen from Wilson Ridge Road. “Through some interviews with them, we got admissions of at least 12 other motor vehicle burglaries they had done a couple of nights previous to that [the day of the interviews],” Osborne told the commission. “Stamford ended up charging them, as well, with numerous motor vehicle burglaries,” he said.

Editor’s note: This article has been updated near the bottom:

More unlocked cars and SUVs have been entered overnight, not only in Noroton but at the Kensett houses much farther north and on Rocaton Road in the central part of town, according to police reports. A total of 10 different people have been either seen on video surveillance, arrested or stopped by police late at night. Some of these people — including two arrested teenagers and three others dressed all in black and stopped by police on the Post Road — were mentioned in a police announcement last week. Police gave a bit more information on the circumstances surrounding two teenagers arrested after one of them was spotted on the Post Road near motor vehicle burglaries. Police also gave out more information about stopping a young man and two teenagers all in black as they ran along the Post Road just after 12 midnight on Thursday, Feb.

A Darien man who left $360 in cash “in plain view” on the front passenger seat of a car parked in Noroton Heights and then went into a store, returned about five minutes later, and it was already too late. The front driver’s side window of the 2015 Subaru Impreza was smashed and the cash was gone. The 36-year-old man told police that the incident occurred at about 3 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 17, in the parking lot in front of Walgreens at 138 Heights Road. ____________

Two Stamford teenagers, both 17, have been charged in connection with numerous cars being entered, several thefts from them and a stolen SUV after Darien police worked undercover in a surveillance operation, police announced Thursday morning. Here’s the police news release:

During the past two weeks over 20 car burglaries and two stolen vehicles have been reported in Darien. In all of these incidents the vehicles were left unlocked and the ignition keys were in the vehicles that were stolen. On Feb. 22, 2017 the Darien Police Department Selective Enforcement Unit, Detective Division, and Patrol Division conducted a joint surveillance operation targeting the car theft suspects.

Reports of thefts from vehicles parked outside and left unlocked overnight are an ongoing frustration for Darien police, according to former Police Chief Duane Lovello. Police officers get information on each theft, ask neighbors if anything was seen or heard, then file reports on a crime that could be largely prevented if town residents just locked their cars. Before Lovello retired on Feb. 15, he was interviewed by Darien TV 79 Program Director Jim Cameron in an “Inside Town Hall” show that started airing two weeks ago on the town cable television station. Cameron asked Lovello, “What are some of the typical cases Darien Police Department handles?”

Sometime between late afternoon on Monday, Feb. 13 and Tuesday morning, several unlocked vehicles parked near homes in the southwestern part of town were entered, no items were taken from them, residents told police, who soon learned of other cars entered with owners who weren’t so lucky later in the week. Two more cars were entered at 21 Wilson Ridge Road, and one — a white 2011 Land Rover that had keys in it — was stolen. That theft occurred sometime late Wednesday afternoon, Feb. 15.

In a recent interview, Duane Lovello, who just-retired as Darien police chief, said that town residents who leave their cars unlocked are the “bane of our existence.” Here’s a public announcement from Darien Police on the problem of unlocked vehicles, which points out that when you leave a car unlocked, it doesn’t just hurt you — it can potentially hurt others, especially if a stolen vehicle is pursued by police. On Wednesday night, for example, an unlocked vehicle with keys in it was stolen in Stamford and crashed in Darien, according to Stamford police. Since the beginning of the year, 12 cars have been reported entered, many with items stolen from them, and there have been three stolen cars in town, according to police. Here’s the announcement:

Yes, the Town of Darien is a very safe community. So safe that residents don’t feel the need to lock their cars. In fact, many choose to leave the keys in their cars, most likely for convenience. As a result, a reputation has been established that Darien is very welcoming to car thieves.

A 2012 Audi Q5 was stolen overnight on Baywater Drive, and two other vehicles in the Noroton Bay neighborhood were also entered on the same night last week, residents told police. The vehicles were parked at homes on Baywater Drive, Shipway Road and Waverly Road near Weed Beach (these links show the streets, the pins on the Google Maps are not meant to indicate exact locations on the streets). Darien police gave these accounts of the three incidents, all of which occurred sometime from the evening of Tuesday, Feb. 7 to Wednesday, Feb. 8:
Stolen Car on Baywater Drive
A 44-year-old resident of the street parked the car in her driveway at about 10:15 p.m. She said she was unsure whether or not she locked the car, and she still had the key with her, although the original key had been lost a year ago.

« August 2022 »

Three unlocked vehicles parked overnight on Holmes Avenue were entered overnight from Saturday to Sunday, Jan. 21 to 22, but nothing was reported stolen. The car and two SUVs — two of them in driveways — were left unlocked despite numerous thefts and attempted thefts from unlocked vehicles in the area. All three vehicles were parked on the section of the street south of Middlesex Road, in the area between 80 and 100 Holmes Ave. A woman, 32, told police that her white 2013 Hyundai Santa Fe had been parked in her driveway overnight.