New Canaan Police this week released more information about a brazen daylight home burglary Friday afternoon that saw someone or some people enter an 85-year-old White Birch Road woman’s home and steal jewelry while an accomplice chit-chatted with her about tree care outside.
Some time shortly after 2 p.m., a white male in his 30s approached the woman at her home after she’d finished some gardening, according to a police report.
The woman was back inside, when the man began talking to her through a window and asked her to come out—she didn’t at first, according to Sgt. Carol Ogrinc of the New Canaan Police Department.
The man—described as having black hair, wearing a blue and green plaid shirt, jeans and work boots—told her that a neighbor was planning to cut down some trees and he needed to know which ones were hers (presumably, so that they were spared), Ogrinc said.
The resident then did go outside for about eight minutes, during which time the man’s cellphone rang repeatedly (he walked away a bit to answer it).
She left the door unlocked after they finished talking and saw the man walk back toward the road (she lives quite close to the Merritt Parkway), the police report said. When she went deeper into the house, she saw that drawers had been pulled open, that a jewelry box was missing (costume jewelry and a gold ring included), and that there were signs of forced entry into a basement apartment, where a 60-year-old woman lives, the report said.
That apartment had been rummaged through, though nothing was missing, Ogrinc said.
It isn’t clear how much the stolen goods are worth. Police spoke to the neighbor in question later, and that individual told police that he hadn’t hired anyone to do tree care, the report said.
The investigation is open.