New Canaan Police are providing more information about a home burglary on Brookwood Lane that the department originally Tweeted out on Friday afternoon.
At about 12:05 p.m. Friday, soon after a home alarm company notified police of unusual activity at the home, the older couple that lives there told police that they noticed doors swung open when they arrived home. According to a police report, the couple originally thought that the wind had blown them open, but then saw that a screen door had been cut to allow someone to enter.
About $200 in costume jewelry was reported missing.
Police during their investigation gathered evidence that shows someone may have been eyeing that home and others on the opposite side of Smith Ridge Road.
According to Sgt. Carol Ogrince of the New Canaan Police Department, the couple earlier that day (they were only gone for an hour) had noticed a dark-colored Mercedes, possibly black in color and with tinted windows, pull into the driveway and then back out, just as they were leaving. The couple told police they didn’t think much of it at the time.
Another Brookwood Lane homeowner told police that a dark-skinned man had pulled up to their residence, exited a dark-colored sedan with tinted windows and asked, after the homeowner answered the door, whether the house was a particular number on Brookwood, police said. It seemed a strange question, the homeowner said, since their house number was clearly signed.
In the two days immediately after the home burglary on Brookwood, police fielded two calls on a suspicious person—on Turner Hill Road and then upper Laurel Road. Though no vehicle was seen, both incidents involved homeowners answering the door where a dark-skinned male, with a stocky, muscular build said he was from Terminix pest control.
At about 12:47 p.m. on Friday, a homeowner from Turner Hill Rd walked outside from her garage and saw a person standing at her back door with a clipboard, Ogrinc said. The person said he was from Terminix then began walking back toward the road. The suspicious person is described as a black male approximately five feet, five inches tall, with a medium build.
At about 2 p.m. on Saturday (Aug. 16), a Laurel Road resident said a black man approached his home on foot. The complainant described him as about six feet tall, well dressed and 30 to 35 years old. The stranger said he was from Terminix and when he was asked for identification, was unable to supply any, according to a police report. There was nothing in what the man was wearing that identified him as an employee of the pest control company, police said.
In the first case, the suspicious person was wearing a white polo shirt and khaki shorts, police said.
New Canaan police issued the following tips following a rash of home burglaries in town around the time of the Fourth of July holiday. Another home burglary was reported at the end of July, on Old Norwalk Road:
- Activate alarm systems—always—even when leaving your house for a short time.
- Lock all doors and windows.
- Never leave your keys in your car.
- Report all suspicious persons or vehicles to our Department at 203-594-3500.
- Secure all valuables.
Here’s where 90 Brookwood Lane is: