Unlocked in Darien 2019

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Overnight Friday to Saturday, a 2020 Volvo XC60 was stolen after it was left unlocked outside a home on Horseshoe Road. Within a day, the SUV was found in Waterbury. Inside the vehicle, Darien police detectives found items stolen the same night from another unlocked vehicle outside a Brookside Road house. When police went to the Brookside Road victim’s home to tell her what they’d found, she told them she hadn’t realized her purse had been stolen. It held various bank cards, identification and keys.

Trace evidence left in a Jeep Wrangler stolen in Darien in November 2019 led to the recent arrest of a man, who was also charged in connection to a facsimile of a firearm that was found in the vehicle which crashed after a Bridgeport police chase. Police didn’t say what the trace evidence was. Darien police gave this account of what happened, including accusations not proven in court:

The 2010 Jeep had been unlocked, with the keys inside, in the driveway at 27 Patricia Lane. It was no longer there by 8:04 a.m. on Nov. 9, 2019, when the owner reported it missing.

An unlocked 2020 Buick Enclave parked outside a home on Oakshade Avenue was entered sometime overnight from Saturday to Sunday, Nov. 23 to 24, Darien police were told. According to police:

Two $10 bills were taken from the glove box, along with an iPhone charger valued at $20 and a pair of Tom Ford sunglasses valued at $400. The victim initially didn’t think anything had been stolen, so didn’t report it to police the incident until Monday afternoon, Nov. 25.

Some Thanksgivings are more eventful than usual, as shown in these two police reports, including accusations not proven in court:

Shortly before 2:38 a.m. at a home on Harriet Lane, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring until a resident heard banging on the outside door and ringing of the doorbell. When the resident opened the door, what did he see but a man who ran past the resident and into his home. Asked who he was, the intruder replied, “Nick.” When told to leave, he did. The resident then called police.

An unlocked 2016 Toyota Tacoma pickup truck was entered sometime overnight from Saturday to Sunday, Nov. 23 to 24. Items in the glove box and center console were disturbed but nothing appeared to be missing from the truck, parked outside 15 Oakshade Ave. Police were told about the incident early Sunday evening. See Also:

In Three Nights, Four Vehicles Stolen in Darien, 11 Others Entered — All 15 Unlocked (Nov.

Four vehicles were stolen and another vehicle stolen from elsewhere was left in town sometime overnight from Wednesday to Thursday, Nov. 13 to 14, and on that night, the night before and on the night of Nov. 15 to 16, another 11 vehicles were entered. All but one of the 15 Darien vehicles were unlocked, and the locked vehicle was found with an open rear window. Three of the four stolen vehicles had their keys in them (it isn’t obvious how the fourth one was stolen).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

« August 2022 »

A pencil case valued at $50 was stolen when a pickup truck and a sport utility vehicle were entered overnight Friday to Saturday, June 14 to 15 on Old Parish Road. On the same night, a key ring with some keys on it was stolen when two vehicles were entered on Holly Lane. In all cases, the vehicles were unlocked. Darien police described what happened with these accounts:
36 Old Parish Road
A home security camera caught two males entering the Chevrolet Blazer, one through the front passenger-side door, the other through the driver’s door of the SUV. Not shown on the video was the entry into the Chevrolet Silverado.