Police Blotter: Giraffe Returns; Kids Trespass

Young Driver Arrested for DWI:

An officer conducting selective enforcement near the intersection of Old Stamford Road and Talmadge Hill Road reportedly observed David. J. Garcia take a wide turn, drifting into the opposite lane, as he drove off the Merritt Parkway and headed south on Route 106. When the officer stopped the 22-year-old Garcia a short way down the road, he allegedly noticed signs of intoxication, and after conducting field sobriety tests placed the young man under arrest. Garcia was charged with operating under the influence, making an improper right turn, and failure to carry a license. He posted $250 bond and is due in court May 17.

Giraffe Statue Stolen and Recovered:

The owner of an $18,000 giraffe statue reported that it had been stolen from the driveway area of her home on St. John's Place sometime between 10 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. on May 4. She had reported the same statute vandalized on April 25, after finding it toppled and cracked in her yard after a few days away. It now looks as if the presumed vandalism may have been an attempted theft of the statue, which weighs several hundred pounds. Police recovered the statue in Norwalk and are investigating the theft.

Kids Caught Smoking, Trespassing:

After receiving a complaint about a group of teenagers smoking on private property on Burtis Avenue near Cherry Street shortly before 9 p.m. Saturday, May 8, an officer cited two 17-year-old boys and a 16-year-old girl for trespassing. The officer found cigarettes on one of the 17-year-olds and gave him an additional summons for possession of tobacco by a minor. The officer did not cite three 15-year-olds who were in the group. All six teenagers were from New Canaan.

Break-in In YMCA Lot:

A 51-year-old New Canaan woman reported to police at 6:41 a.m. that she had returned to her car about 10 minutes earlier to find that the passenger window of her car had been smashed and her purse stolen while she was inside the YMCA. The woman said he had locked her car at about 5:50 a.m., thinking that she had also set the audible alarm, but it never sounded. The missing white leather purse is itself worth about $400, and contained $100 in cash, an unsigned check for $1,800, and a $250 Blackberry.

Resident an Apparent Victim of Identity Theft:

A 67-year-old Forest Street resident went to the police May 5 to a report a fraud after his credit card was denied while he was trying to buy gas earlier that day.

The complainant had been contacted in mid-April about suspicious activity on his credit card account; he had then canceled that card and was sent a new one.

After the May 5 incident, the credit card company told the complainant that they had also sent a new card to someone posing as him a week earlier when the now presumed fraudster, using the last 4-digits of the complainant's social security number, called the company to say he hadn't received the new card.

Unscrupulous Roofer:

A 63-year-old resident of Country Club Road reported to police May 4 that he had employed a contractor to fix his roof and a $600 deposit had been cashed, but the work had not been completed. The complainant said he had been unable to connect with the roofer since April 23, although he had apparently showed up at the house on April 27 when the complainant was not at home.

Unscrupulous Chimney Sweeps:

An elderly woman contacted police on May 7 to report that she had presumably been scammed by a company she had hired to work on her chimney after the company called soliciting the job. When the crew showed up to do the work, they were only at her home on Country Club Road for about an hour, but charged her $900. The complainant later realized the excessive charge was a red flag, but when she went to stop payment on the check it had already been cashed.

iPhone Snatched at St. Luke's:

A 17-year-old St. Luke's student from Stamford had lost his 8GB iPhone on the morning of May 3. When he went to look for it later that day, a school custodian said he had found the phone and left it on the receptionist's desk for him. But when the student went to retrieve it from the receptionist's desk the phone was gone. He reported the phone stolen on May 5.

Vehicle Apparently Keyed Behind Vine Cottage:

A 51-year-old New Canaan woman reported to police at 3:13 p.m. May 3 that she had just found her 2006 Mazda with deep scratches stretching from bumper to bumper on both sides of the vehicle. She had parked the vehicle behind Vine Cottage at 8:30 a.m. and noticed the damage, estimated at $800, when she returned at around 3 p.m.