Police Blotter: Unlocked Car with Keys Inside Stolen

Jeep Stolen and Crashed:

When police responded to a report of an accident on Silvermine Road near Pastures Lane late Saturday night, they found a badly damaged 2002 Jeep Liberty and a telephone pole cracked in half with wires down, but no driver or passengers in sight.

Once police got in touch with the registered owners, a South Salem couple, they said they had parked the car in the Park Street lot, and left it unlocked with the keys under the mat while they headed into New York on the train.

Police have identified a Norwalk man who went to Norwalk Hospital claiming to have been hit by a car as a suspect in the theft, but no arrest has yet been made.

Fairfield Woman Arrested for Shoplifting:

Police responded to a report of shoplifting at the Rugby store on Elm Street around 11 a.m. June 5. Employees reported seeing an Asian woman, approximately 20 years old, wearing a flowered pink dress and flip flops, go into the dressing room with five items and then leave the store without buying anything. The employees said they the found tags on the floor of the dressing room, but not the clothes the woman had brought in.

Police confronted a person matching the description of the suspect. According to Sgt. Pete Condos Daoge Lucy Jin, 22 of Fairfield, initially denied taking the items but then brought police to her car where she had stashed them. Jin was charged with 6th degree larceny and released on a promise to appear in court June 14. J Crew did not report any merchandise stolen.

Fake Grandson Scams Resident:

A 65-year-old Hoyt Farm Road resident wired $1,919 to a man who had called claiming to be his grandson and saying he needed the money to compensate the other driver after he was supposedly involved in an accident in London. When the victim spoke to his real grandson later he told his grandfather he was not in London. The victim then notified police of that he had been scammed on the afternoon of June 4.

Another Car Break-in at YMCA:

A 42-year-old female from Stamford came out of the YMCA at about 5:45 p.m. June 3 to find that the front passenger window had been shattered of her 2007 Toyota Sienna while she had been in the gym for an hour. She immediately noticed her purse missing along with a Canon camera and called police. The purse, which had been left in the center console, contained $15 in cash along with the complainant's license and credit cards, which fortunately were not used before she could cancel them. This is the third vehicle larceny in the YMCA lot to be reported to police in the last two months.

Alleged Credit Card Thieves Arrested:

One woman has been arrested for stealing a wallet belonging to a shopkeeper at the Beach Corner on Main Street; the arrest of another woman in the incident is pending.

The complainant had discovered the wallet missing on April 27, and when she subsequently called her credit card company found that her card had been used twice in New Canaan, once in Greenwich, and once in Darien (the charges totaled less than $500). When she reported the theft to police the next day, she said she recalled seeing two suspicious women in her store. During the investigation, a witness provided license plate information and then identified the owner of the corresponding vehicle as one of the suspects.

Branford police arrested 28-year-old Kristen Montanez of Branford on June 1 around 11:30 p.m. New Canaan police then picked her up and brought her to headquarters where she was charged with credit card theft, two counts of illegal use of a credit card, and 6th degree larceny. She was held on $10,000 bond and appeared in court the next day.

Melissa Trotter, 25, of Greenwich is currently in custody in relation to another credit card theft in that town and is expected to be charged in the New Canaan incident soon.

$1,200 Cash Gone Missing:

A 34-year-old resident of Avalon Drive reported to police June 3 that $1,200 cash he typically keeps in a beige-colored linen bag in the bottom of his clothes hamper and counts every month was nowhere to be found. A cleaning crew that works in the apartment has denied any wrongdoing. Police have identified no other suspects at this time.