Darienite (https://darienite.com/tag/darien-stolen-motor-vehicles-2019)
When the owner of a 2011 Toyota Sienna parked the minivan in a Darien Railroad Station parking lot at 33 West Ave. at about 5 a.m., Wednesday, Sept. 25, he left it unlocked. When he found that it wasn’t there on his return at about 7 p.m., Thursday, he realized that there may have been a spare key inside. He reported the matter to police at 8:31.
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.
A Darien man’s 2018 Mercedes S560 was used by his son and parked in the Darien Train Station lot on Sunday, Aug. 11. When the man came to pick up the car on Tuesday night, however, it was gone. Here’s how police described what happened:
The man’s son parked the car in the station lot at 7:30 p.m. He left the keys inside and locked the car (knowing his father had a second set of keys for it), then boarded a train to New York City. At 8:30 p.m., Tuesday, the father arrived at the lot but couldn’t find the car.
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.
“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).
A 2008 Volvo XC90 was stolen from outside 11 Birch Road sometime between 7 p.m. on Wednesday and 8 a.m., Thursday, Jan. 16 to 17, the owner told police. Police were told the keys had not been in the SUV. Police saw no signs of forced entry at the scene. That’s usually an indication the vehicle was unlocked.
George Peele, a 20-year-old friend (at least at the time) of a Darien man, stayed overnight in the man’s room while the man was gone, according to police. Here’s what happened, Darien police said (including accusations not proven in court):
At about 4 p.m. the next day, Wednesday, Jan. 9 the man’s father saw his 2017 Jeep Cherokee being backed out of the driveway. The keys to the Jeep had been in his son’s room. Police entered the vehicle information into law enforcement databases as stolen.
The owner of a 2015 Porsche Cayenne left the keys inside and the car unlocked in his driveway at 7 North Road when he was away for several days, only to find it missing on his return, he told police. Darien police provided this further account:
The man said he last saw the car on Thursday, Dec. 27. He returned home on Jan. 3, exactly a week later, to find the car missing.