Winter Thefts: Hockey Stick, Snow Plow Missing

A $229 hockey stick this month was reported stolen from the New Canaan Winter Club on Frogtown Road, according to police.

A 52-year-old Southport man told police that his TPS Response Pro hockey stick went missing at about 6 p.m. on Dec. 31, according to spokesperson Sgt. Carol Ogrinc.

“He was finished playing hockey and they don’t bring the sticks into the locker room, so they put them in an outside bin,” Ogrinc told Patch. “He left it in the bin and he was only in the locker room for five minutes or so, and when he exited, that stick was missing.”

The man thought the stick may have been picked up inadvertently, so he waited until Jan. 10 to report it stolen. Police now are investigating as a larceny case.

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An 8-foot Fisher snow plow blade (see photo) was reported stolen from a Field Crest Road residence at 5:11 p.m. on Jan. 11 — hours before the area was with its most recent snow storm last Tuesday night.

A 55-year-old man reported the yellow plow missing, though reports of when it was seen last conflicted, police said. According to Ogrinc, one of the man’s friends said he saw the plow — detached from any vehicle — in the driveway between 4:45 and 5 p.m. Yet a neighbor didn’t recall seeing it in the driveway at 3:45 p.m., Ogrinc said.

“It looked like  it was dragged,” Ogrinc told Patch. “It wasn’t lifted. It was dragged.

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New Canaan police arrested a 22-year-old Norwalk man late Saturday morning after discovering marijuana in his car during a motor vehicle stop.

James McGowan, of West Norwalk Road, was charged with possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.

At about 11 a.m., police saw an expired registration sticker on McGowan's car as he drove on Millport Avenue near East Avenue, Ogrinc said. The patrol unit ran vehicle’s plate to discover that McGowan’s car had been unregistered since November, according to Ogrinc.

“When he [the police officer] approached the vehicle, there were three occupants including McGowan and when they lowered their windows to talk to him, the officer detected the odor of burnt marijuana, so with that he had the other occupants exit and searched the vehicle and people,” Ogrinc told Patch. “In the passenger compartment a glass pipe with like a bowl-type end that contained partially burnt marijuana was found in the passenger compartment. And under a pile of blankets on the back seat was a pipe, a regular pipe.”

McGowan’s passengers weren’t charged; he told police that the pot and gear were his, Ogrinc said.

“Zira was not on duty, so they [the police officers] were on their own,” Ogrinc said, referring to the figurehead of the police department’s K-9 unit, a German shepherd dog. “She would have hit on it in a second.”

McGowan was released after promising to appear Jan. 28 in .