Crime & Safety

Strangest Police Reports in the Area from 2012, Part 2

Here's Part 1 of our distillation of the most unusual of the unusual reports published in Fairfield County Police Digest in 2012.

The headlines below, from "Fairfield County Police Digest" articles as published on Darien Patch, don't necessarily match up with the reports selected. (New Canaan Patch also has a "Fairfield County Police Digest" column; Part 2 of this roundup will be published Monday.):

$0.05 (per Bottle) x 24 (to a Case) x 45 (Cases) = 2 Arrests

Fairfield police arrested two men who had allegedly stolen 45 cases of empty beer bottles from behind the bar; one suspect told cops he needed the deposit money to pay his rent.

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(They can't just keep that stuff in the evidence locker, can they?)

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Filching from the Family?

An Easton man allegedly crashed a car in Fairfield that he had taken by mistake from the parking lot of a bar. Police said the man told them he was driving his minivan when he was in fact driving someone else’s Dodge pickup truck.

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Surprise Comings and Goings Around the County

SURPRISING ARRIVAL: The head of a Fairfield high school student served as the site for a surprise landing made by a red-tailed hawk. The student was not injured; police and animal control were unable to locate a nest in the vicinity.

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On Feb. 9, police received a call of a suspicious vehicle on Redding Road. According to Redding police, there were two men in a parking lot on a private lot dressed in suits holding rifles. They were conducting a sale of the rifles, and were asked to go somewhere else. No charges were filed.

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A man detained in a holding cell at the Norwalk Police Department attempted to escape from the cell, police said. According to police, he climbed into the ceiling briefly before the ceiling tiles gave way, causing him to fall to the floor and get knocked unconscious.

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The Case of the Suspicious Backflipper—and More!

One Weston man informed police that an ex-girlfriend of his has been harassing him for a decade, having followed him across the country. The man says the ex has been sending harassing messages to him and his wife.

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Fairfield police are investigating a claim of a suspicious man doing backflips in a resident’s backyard.

The man was dressed from head-to-toe in gray sweats and was doing backflips in the marsh behind the resident’s property and then in the side yard, police were told. He reportedly left in a red car.

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A trio of young boys in Fairfield were caught spraying each other with WD-40 near a campfire meant for roasting marshmallows, police said. No one was injured, but one boy’s eyebrows had reportedly been singed.

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Police in Norwalk cited a city man for littering when he tossed a chicken skin out of his parked car though a garbage can stood nearby, then refused to pick it up and throw it away. Approached by police, the man reportedly told police that it wasn’t litter because it had no bones, and when police pushed back, said they were prejudiced.

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Norwalk police responding to a reported fight Tasered a man they found naked in the back seat of a car. According to police, the man apparently wasn’t responding to police officers and instead got dressed in the car and reached for something, prompting the Tasering—it turned out to be a cell phone charger.

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Charge: Assault & Pastry

A Norwalk woman is accused of punching a restaurant worker in the face four times, then tossing desserts out of a refrigerator case at a Norwalk eatery after suspecting the employee of trying to steal her cellphone.

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Police responded to a call in Fairfield in which a live chicken was dropped off on the porch of a resident. The complainant said the drop-off was likely a prank but asked officers to bring the fowl to Animal Control.

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'Test Drive This Car—It's a Steal.' 'You Don't Say ...'

A New York man was charged in Stamford for allegedly stealing a car, using it for daily incidental travel and then swapping it out for a new ride by stealing a different car during a test drive while leaving the old one behind. He's alleged to have done this on multiple occasions. 

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A Stamford woman is facing assault charges after catching her boyfriend in another woman's vehicle, police said. Upon coming across the two in a car together, the woman poured antifreeze on the other woman's vehicle before ramming into her driver's side door with her own car.

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A Trumbull man who allegedly put two GPS units and one listening device in his wife's car has been charged with eavesdropping.

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A large quantity of jewelry, reported stolen in Greenwich last Halloween, apparently had been dumped by thieves into a storm drain. That’s where a cleaning crew found it last week.

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Norwalk police Tasered a city man who where he’d fallen asleep after refusing to pay for a $43 cab ride. (Police later found $1,353 in cash on the man.)

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In Greenwich, police ended up arresting a motorist on misdemeanor charges for his alleged involvement in a car chase—police said he told them he sped after another vehicle that had run a red light and wanted to report the incident to officials.

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Westport police arrested a Weston man on an accusation he dumped a hot coffee on a victim's Apple laptop computer and dropping his iPhone in another cup of coffee while at Starbucks.

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A woman allegedly beat another woman during a fight over dancing with a man at a Stamford nightclub. Weapon of choice: a coconut.

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Two women in their 60s refused to pay for meals they ordered from a Fairfield diner, citing the food was "too greasy." The women each drove away in a BMW, the diner's manager told police.

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A wedding party celebrating on a Fairfield beach last weekend was asked by cops to stop sending fiery balloons into the air.

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Police in Stamford say that when they arrested a man on nine outstanding warrants after he allegedly couldn't pay his $500 strip club bill, he told them the White House would be calling to inform them of his diplomatic immunity. The call never came.

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Reports of Super-Sized Crimes

About 60 pairs of panties—totaling nearly $700—were swiped when employees weren’t looking from a display case in Victoria’s Secret in Fairfield.

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A Wilton mom was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol after a witness said she crashed into a concrete column at a gas station—mulitple times, resulting in a flat tire and damage to the right side of the car.

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A Norwalk woman tried to claim an iPhone app showed her she was sober enough to drive—but police said they arrested her for having a .134 blood alcohol level.

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Two Greenwich teens were ticketed by Greenwich Police who received complaints that as the pair drove past pedestrians they pelted them with water balloons.

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Public Disturbance with Water Balloons

Wilton police gave the following account of this incident:

Apparently attempting a prank on his buddy, a driver drove his pretending to trap his friend.

Unfortunately, this jammed the door shut, actually trapping the other man inside.

The driver then tried to un-jam the door—again by ramming into it with his pickup. While the door remained locked, the glass on the door and the surrounding windows shattered, allowing his friend to escape. The two took escaped in the truck but police have video evidence of the incident.

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A man pretending to be affiliated with a non-existent Boy Scout Troop in East Haven scammed Edgerton Heating & Air Conditioning in Monroe out of $400 worth of scrap metal. He had solicited it as a donation by telling the business it was for a robotics contest the boys were competing in.

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For the second time in less than a month, an entire display of panties was stolen from the Victoria’s Secret in Fairfield.

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Don't Stand Here or Sit There

Monroe's weekly Animal Reports article includes the story of a dog who got its head stuck in a box of dog biscuits and fell into a roadside ditch; a woman who complained about a goat—who probably saw its own reflection as it rammed into her car; and a runaway Peacock.

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The Panty Bandit Always Returns to Scene of Crime

For the third time since May, an entire display of panties was swiped from the Victoria's Secret in Fairfield. The store's loss this time totaled $870.

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Tomorrow: Part Deux


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