Darien Motor Vehicles Entered 2019

Report: In Less Than 10 Minutes $700 in Tools Were Stolen From Unattended, Apparently Unlocked Vehicle

Purse and Wallet Stolen from Vehicle Overnight, Oct 27 to 28 on Walmsley Road

Car Unlocked, Key Inside — the Ultimate in Convenience for Thief Who Stole It

Latest Spate of Overnight Vehicle Entering/Thieving: 11 Vehicles at 10 Addresses on Three Streets in One Night

Man Parks Unlocked Jeep With Key in It in Train Station Lot With Inevitable Result

9:45 PM, Car Parked Outside, Unlocked, With Keys — 5:21 AM, Seen in Police Pursuit — 6:15 AM, Damaged in Accident

Wallet Stolen from Unlocked Car When Man Makes Brief Visit to Country Club

Five Unlocked Vehicles Entered in the Same Night in Same Area of Noroton, One Car Stolen

How Darien Police Respond to Overnight Thefts From Unlocked Cars

Three Unlocked Vehicles Entered Overnight Last Weekend

Bag With Cash, Bank Cards, Driver’s License Reported Missing from Unlocked Car

Police Release Image of Male Suspected of Looking for Loot in Motor Vehicle

Five Stolen Vehicles, 14 Total Entered on Various Nights Last Week

Five Vehicles Stolen, 11 Entered in Darien in the Past Week — You Guessed It: All Unlocked

Vehicles Parked Outside Four Homes on Various Streets Entered Overnight Saturday to Sunday

Public Safety

By David Gurliacci | November 11, 2019

Public Safety

By David Gurliacci | November 8, 2019

Public Safety

By David Gurliacci | November 8, 2019

Public Safety

By David Gurliacci | September 30, 2019

Public Safety

By David Gurliacci | September 3, 2019

Public Safety

By David Gurliacci | August 22, 2019

Public Safety

By David Gurliacci | August 22, 2019

Public Safety

By David Gurliacci | August 21, 2019

Public Safety

By David Gurliacci | August 6, 2019

Public Safety

By David Gurliacci | August 6, 2019

Public Safety

By David Gurliacci | July 30, 2019

Public Safety

By David Gurliacci | July 12, 2019

Public Safety

By DARIENITE.COM | July 9, 2019

Public Safety

By David Gurliacci | July 5, 2019

Public Safety

By David Gurliacci | July 1, 2019

Tools valued at $700 were stolen from the back seat of a vehicle parked, apparently unlocked, in front of a store Friday morning, Oct. 29, a man told police. The man had parked at Ring’s End Lumber, 181 West Ave. at about 7 a.m. and was in the store for only about 10 minutes when he returned to find several tools were missing. The police announcement didn’t specifically say that the vehicle was unlocked, but no mention was made of a break-in, either.

Police Darien Police Lock Your Car Every Time

A purse and wallet inside a vehicle, parked overnight on Oct. 27 to 28 outside 25 Walmsley Road, were both missing the next morning. The owner told police she wasn’t sure if the vehicle had been locked, but police said there were no signs of forced entry.

Approaching a 2012 Toyota Prius parked outside overnight from Oct. 27 to 28 at 28 Edgewood Road, a thief found not only that the car was unlocked but that the key fob inside it allowed the car itself to be stolen, not just whatever was inside. The owner, whether on purpose or not, did what many Darien car owners do. The thief did what thieves do. Several days later, Bridgeport police found the car on Pennsylvania Avenue.

The latest string of overnight thieving from and entering vehicles occurred from Monday to Tuesday, Sept. 23 to 24, involving 11 vehicles at 10 addresses on Oak Park Avenue, Nolen Lane and Leeuwarden Road, according to Darien police. In every case, the vehicle was left outside, unlocked. The first report came to police at 6:15 a.m., Tuesday. In the list below, we’ve noted when items were reported stolen (if no item is noted, it appeared to the owner that nothing was missing):
Leeuwarden Road:
25 Leeuwarden — 2014 Lexus RX

39 Leeuwarden — 2017 BMW 540 — canvas bag containing Bose headphones and an iPad mini

44 Leeuwarden — 2018 Ford Explorer

101 Leeuwarden — 2008 Toyota Highlander

108 Leeuwarden — 2015 Honda Fit

117 Leeuwarden — 2018 Tesla S — $6 taken
Oak Park Avenue:
5 Oak Park — 2019 GMC Sierra

11 Oak Park — 2000 Toyota 4Runner — Wallet stolen from the vehicle along with contents and $60 in cash.

23 Oak Park — 2016 Ford Explorer — about $25 in change, a gold necklace, a wedding ring.

At 6:30 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 26, a man parked his 2016 Jeep Grand Cherokee in a parking lot at Noroton Heights Railroad Station, with the key in the vehicle, which was unlocked. The inevitable happened at about 7:45 p.m., when the man, returning from work on the train, found that the Jeep was no longer where it had been parked. At 8:05 p.m., he reported the matter to police.

Darien police contacted the owner of a Jeep Liberty to tell her that not only was her vehicle stolen, but it had been spotted by Greenwich police as they pursued another vehicle stolen from Hamden at about 5:21 a.m. that morning. That wasn’t the worst of it, however: By 6:15 a.m., Norwalk police informed police in Darien that the Jeep was involved in a motor vehicle accident in that city, and it had to be towed. Here’s what police said happened that day, Friday, Aug. 16.:

At 5:21 a.m., a police officer working in communications overheard an inter-agency radio (known as a “hotline”) broadcast indicating that Greenwich police were pursuing the Hamden vehicle. The broadcast said police had seen a silver Jeep Liberty in the area and noted the license plate.

A brief visit to Wee Burn Country Club cost a man his wallet when he left it in his unlocked Jeep in the parking lot. Sometime before 5:18 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 15, when he reported the theft to police, he parked in the lot of the club at 410 Hollow Tree Ridge Road. Like all of Darien’s private clubs, Wee Burn is not downtown, and like most, it’s away from highways. Nevertheless, surveillance video of the parking lot showed a black SUV arrive in the lot, and two men get out of it, then begin pulling on vehicle door handles.

Google Maps four vehicles entered overnight same neighborhood 8/11-12/19

From Sunday night to Monday morning, Aug. 11 to 12, unlocked cars parked outside overnight at homes on various streets near the southern end of Hollow Tree Ridge Road (south of Interstate 95) were entered, police said. One car, left not only unlocked but with the keys inside, was stolen from Wilson Ridge Road East. The car was found by Norwalk police several days later, so damaged that it couldn’t be driven. Elsewhere in town, similar incidents took place in an overlapping time period: Sometime from Sunday night to Tuesday, a car was stolen from a railroad parking lot on West Avenue near the Darien Railroad station and a house on Old Farm Road was entered and items were strewn about in a bedroom.

Trying to find the young thieves who visit town to enter unlocked vehicles overnight, — stealing from some of them and, when the keys are left inside, sometimes stealing the cars themselves — is like looking for a needle in a haystack for police, a Darien police captain recently told the Board of Selectmen. For the patrol officers on the night shift, there aren’t predictable places to look for the thieves, Marron said. “It’s all over town — it’s not just the borders, it’s not the dead-end roads. It’s just all over, so there’s no real prediction ability there,” Capt. Jeremiah Marron said. There are more reports of unlocked vehicles being entered in the warmer weather, he said.

Would-be thieves (that is, they would be, if they’d taken anything) entered three unlocked vehicles overnight Saturday to Sunday, Darien police were told. Here’s what police said about what happened:

The vehicles entered were on Huckleberry Lane., a street off of Brookside Road in the northeast area of town. 41 Huckleberry Lane
One of the vehicles, a 2017 Lexus RX350, was parked inside the garage at 41 Huckleberry Lane. At 9 a.m., Sunday, Aug. 4, a resident noticed the garage door was open.

A woman who parked her vehicle at 120 Brookside Road and apparently didn’t lock it told police that a bag — containing some cash, bank cards and her driver’s license — left on the front seat was missing. The woman told police that she had parked the car on Wednesday, July 24 at about 12:45 p.m. and returned by 2 p.m., when she found the bag missing. It contained $40 in addition to the cards and license. Police, called at 2:10 p.m. There were no signs of forced entry. (Unlocked vehicles are almost always entered by thieves at night in residential areas of Darien, although daytime thefts from them aren’t unheard of.)

The CrimeMapping feature of Darien Police Department’s website showed multiple thefts from motor vehicles in the area, with the time of 12:45 p.m. No reports were sent out with the department’s weekly news release about police activity, so Darienite.com asked a department spokesman for more information on that.

Surveillance video suspected thief in vehicle

“DO YOU KNOW THIS MAN?” Darien police ask in a post on Facebook. Images from a video show a young man or teenager both inside and outside a vehicle in the driveway at night. The time stamp on the video indicates the suspect was in what appears to be a sport utility vehicle at 1:06 a.m., Sunday, June 30 (assuming the time stamp is correct). “The victim of a motor vehicle burglary in town was able to provide the Darien police with these great surveillance images of the criminal thanks to their home-surveillance equipment,” the Friday morning post said.

Darien police, who had previously announced that five vehicles had been stolen last week, and a total of 11 entered, on Tuesday provided details about those incidents and three more over the weekend. All of the vehicles appear to have been unlocked, and the stolen ones also had keys inside. In almost all cases, the thefts seem to have occurred overnight. Darien police included a statement again reminding residents to lock their cars, and provided some additional information about the problem of unlocked vehicles (published here at the bottom of the article). Five Vehicles Stolen
Darien Railroad Station—Daytime—Tuesday, July 2
A 2019 Land Rover Valar was stolen from the lot nearest the eastbound tracks (the side next to Dunkin Donuts).

Motor Vehicle Thefts Stolen Motor Vehicles Motor Vehicle Burglaries

In the past week, five Darien residents had their vehicles — all of them unlocked — stolen sometime overnight, and a total of 11 town residents found their vehicles had been entered after they were left unlocked, police said. Darien police announced the spate of overnight entries in a Facebook post and on Twitter on Friday afternoon without giving details of exactly where or on what nights the vehicles were entered. More details about the incidents are expected Monday, when police usually issue their regular news release. Police added this comment:

It is clear that once again a criminal element has become aware that many Darien residents leave their vehicles unlocked with the keys inside. While detectives are spending many man hours investigating these incidents, please do your neighbors a favor and protect your neighborhood from overnight car thieves.

« August 2022 »

Five vehicles in four spots in roughly the southwestern area of town were entered overnight from Saturday to Sunday, June 29 to 30, Darien police said. [This article has been updated with specific addresses.]

Not one of them was locked, police said. They added that while each vehicle was rummaged through, nothing was known to have been taken from any of the vehicles on these streets:

—95 and 101 Hollow Tree Ridge Road — a 2012 Buick Enclave and a 2014 Lexus RX (police didn’t specify which vehicle was at which address)

—10 Lighthouse Way — a 2018 Ford F-150 Pickup truck and a 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee

—10 Phillips Lane — a 2015 Infiniti

Update, 9:57 a.m., Tuesday: Police originally did not release the exact addresses where the vehicles were parked, they provided addresses at Darienite.com’s request. Meanwhile, in New Canaan
New Canaan police say they received multiple reports on Sunday of unlocked cars being entered. In one case, an unlocked 2013 Subaru with its keys inside was stolen from a Heritage Hill Road driveway, New Canaan Police Chief Leon Krolikowski said in a news release.