Darien Motor Vehicle Thefts 2017

SUV Stolen on Friday Is Now Found, Driver Says She Was Distracted When She Left Keys Inside

One Unlocked Vehicle Entered on Leroy Ave Last Week

Two Motor Vehicles Stolen, Two Others Entered Overnight Thursday to Friday in Darien

Area Police Chief: Revolving-Door Legal System Contributes to Spate of Car Thefts

Darien Police Have Some Tips on Preventing Motor Vehicle Burglaries and Thefts

Unlocked Cars Stolen in Northern Darien, New Canaan Over Weekend

Police: On a Dead-End Street in Darien, Driving a Stolen Car from Stamford: Two Teens from Bridgeport

Another Vehicle Stolen from Out-of-the-Way Rocaton Road

Unlocked Vehicle Stolen from Driveway on Mansfield Avenue

Stolen SUV Found at Darien Gas Station

Only One Unlocked Car Entered Overnight in Darien As of March 1 — But an Above-Average Haul

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

Car Stolen on Rocaton Road Last Week Found Monday in Bridgeport

Overnight Thefts Continue from Unlocked Darien Vehicles, Two Teens Arrested

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

Public Safety

By David Gurliacci | December 7, 2017

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By David Gurliacci | November 27, 2017

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By David Gurliacci | November 21, 2017

Public Safety

By MICHAEL DINAN | November 20, 2017

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By David Gurliacci | November 15, 2017

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By David Gurliacci | November 6, 2017

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By David Gurliacci | August 23, 2017

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By David Gurliacci | August 22, 2017

Public Safety

By DAVID GURLIACCI | June 6, 2017

Public Safety

By David Gurliacci | March 16, 2017

Public Safety

By David Gurliacci | March 9, 2017

Government & Politics

By David Gurliacci | March 2, 2017

Public Safety

By David Gurliacci | March 1, 2017

Public Safety

By David Gurliacci | February 27, 2017

Public Safety

By David Gurliacci | February 24, 2017

Update, 11:02 a.m., Dec. 7:

A Darien woman posted a note on Facebook that she was the victim who mistakenly left her keys in her SUV last Friday before it was stolen. She said she was just distracted at the time and usually locks her vehicle, which has been found. Lucy Oldrin posted this reply just before 11 a.m., Thursday in a Facebook discussion under the Darienite.com post that linked to an article about the theft. In the Facebook discussion, there was quite a bit of harsh criticism of the woman for not locking up.

Police Darien Police Lock Your Car Every Time

A male on Leroy Avenue told police that someone entered his motor vehicle overnight from Sunday to Monday last week. That Monday morning, Nov. 20, when the victim came to the vehicle open. The vehicle hadn’t been locked overnight, the victim told police after calling them at 8:25 a.m.

The vehicle was parked outside a house at 149 Leroy Ave. No other resident of the area reported that a vehicle had been entered that night; police did not say whether they went around the neighborhood to ask if anyone knew of anything suspicious. Police did not announce any other vehicles being entered over the course of the rest of the week.

Overnight from Thursday to Friday last week, two vehicles were stolen and two others were entered in Darien, police say, with three of the incidents happening around Tokeneke. None of the investigations were over as of Monday afternoon, police said. Thefts
In the first incident to be reported, at 7:24 a.m., Friday, Nov. 17 the owner of a green 2000 Acura Integra told police he left it locked in the driveway of a home in the 300 block of West Avenue the night before. He said the vehicle only had one key, and he still had it.

Car Theft Burglary Post PD Facebook 11-20-17

The Waterbury gang members stealing unlocked motor vehicles from outside homes in Darien, New Canaan and other area communities often have been arrested multiple times in the past, according to New Canaan Police Chief Leon Krolikowski. Krolikowski’s comments came days before Darien Police Department posted an alert Saturday on Facebook and Twitter that three more cars were stolen overnight in town. Those arrested are nearly always juveniles — some as young as 14 years old. One girl arrested in connection with the thefts in New Canaan had been charged with 53 felonies “and she was not even held, she was released,” Krolikowski told members of the New Canaan Police Commission last week. “The justice system lets them get arrested multiple times,” he said at the Nov.

For the past few months, towns in Fairfield County have experienced a substantial increase in the number of both motor vehicle burglaries and stolen motor vehicles. The Darien Police Department has employed various tactics such as unmarked patrols, “bait” cars, and other investigative methods in an attempt to deter and apprehend the persons responsible. What To Do
While we are doing everything we can to impact the recent increase in incidents, we want to take the opportunity to give the residents of Darien some guidelines on keeping their vehicles and valuables safe. Always Lock Your Vehicle
The vast majority of the motor vehicle burglaries we respond to are of vehicles that were left unlocked. Often the suspects will pass over another vehicle in the same driveway because it was locked.

Three cars were stolen in New Canaan and another one in Darien this weekend, and two of the New Canaan cars were later found in Waterbury, according to announcements from each town’s police department. Two other cars were entered, one in New Canaan, the other in Darien. In every single case, the vehicle was unlocked. In every case in which the vehicle was stolen, the keys were inside. “These crimes are being committed by suspected gang members from Waterbury,” New Canaan Police Chief Leon Krolikowski said in a news release.

When a police officer stopped a car on a dead-end street just off the Post Road at 3:40 a.m. Tuesday, the driver and passenger turned out to be two 16-year-olds from Bridgeport, and the car turned out to have been stolen from Stamford, police said. Darien police described what happened with this account, including accusations not proven in court:

While on routine patrol on the Post Road, a Darien police officer noticed three cars going east on the Post Road. The officer was alert to any suspicious behavior at night because of the ongoing wave of car entries and thefts. So the officer followed in his patrol car when all three cars turned onto Salt Box Lane, a dead-end street in the same area where many of the burglaries and thefts have taken place, including several just last week. As the patrol car approached the three vehicles, one of them made a sudden U-turn and went back onto the Post Road.

Rocaton Road, not far from Darien Railroad Station, but still an out-of-the-way side street with only one outlet on to Leroy Road, has experienced its second theft of an unlocked vehicle this year, according to a police report. Darien police described the latest incident with this account:

At 4:30 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 19, a man working as a personal driver left his own SUV, a yellow 2005 Nissan Xterra unlocked in the driveway at 28 Rocaton Road, with the keys in the cup holder of the center console. The man returned at 6:30 a.m. to find his car missing. Overnight from Feb.

A car left typically unlocked in the driveway of a home at 45 Mansfield Ave. was stolen recently, a resident reported to police. The resident told police at 7 p.m., Wednesday, May 31, that the stolen car is owned by her ex-husband and was kept in the driveway for use by other family members. It was always unlocked, with the keys inside. All other family members confirmed they hadn’t taken the car. The ex-wife said she might have seen the car three days before, but wasn’t certain.

A stolen SUV with a smashed rear window was found parked at the Shell gas station at 164 Noroton Ave. on March 6 with plastic taped over the smashed window and a temporary New Jersey license plate where the original one had been, Darien police said. Before the tan 2007 Chevrolet Tahoe was reported to police at 8:32 a.m. on Monday, March 6, it had been parked at the gas station sometime between 11 p.m. on March 4 and 5 a.m. the next morning. The vehicle’s motor appeared to be damaged, and plenty of oil was seeping from it. The SUV had been reported stolen on Jan.

Reported burglaries of unlocked motor vehicles in Darien went down to only one after Sunday of last week, but the thief or thieves got four bank cards, four store credit cards, a debit card and about $40 in cash. Darien police gave this account of the theft:

Sometime overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday, Feb. 28 to March 1, a white 2015 BMW parked outside 65 Hoyt St. was entered. The owner, 48, reported the theft to police at 7:46 a.m.

She had last seen the car at 10 p.m. the night before, then got back to the car at 7 a.m. The stolen items had been taken from her purse, although other valuable items in the purse were left behind.

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.

Bridgeport police on Monday found the black 2016 Audi Q5 that had been stolen from outside 15 Rocaton Road the week before. The car, valued at $42,000, had been left unlocked overnight outside the house. Someone drove off with it overnight Tuesday to Wednesday, Feb. 21 to 22. The 59-year-old owner told police that the car was unlocked and one of the sets of keys was missing. It was found at about 8 p.m. near an intersection in downtown Bridgeport according to Darien police Lt. Jeremiah Marron.

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.

« October 2020 »

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.