Police Blotter for April 20: Suspicious Behavior and Curiousity Solve Three Motor Vehicle Break-Ins

The Fairfield Police Department's press briefing on Wednesday included the following cases. Arrest information does not indicate a conviction.

Two teenagers were arrested on burglary and larceny charges early Wednesday after a patrol officer saw them walking on Kings Highway East in Fairfield and stopped to question them because they acted suspiciously after seeing the patrol car, police said.

Police said the officer saw the teens about 4:50 a.m. walking east on Kings Highway East and that they looked behind them after the officer drove by. The officer turned the patrol car around and stopped to question them, police said.

Police said Robert Michael Smith, 19, of Kenwood Avenue in Fairfield, gave the officer a false name and false account of what he and Kevin Herrera, 18, of Pleasant Street in Norwalk, were doing. Smith had a GPS unit on him as well as a small amount of cocaine and two knives, police said.

Police determined that the GPS unit was stolen from an unlocked car parked on Riverside Drive in Fairfield and that the teens also had stolen a purse from an unlocked car parked on Dorking Drive in Fairfield and a wallet from an unlocked car on Cambridge Street in Fairfield, police said.

Smith and Herrera were each charged with three counts of third-degree burglary, two counts of sixth-degree larceny, three counts of conspiracy to commit third-degree burglary and three counts of conspiracy to commit sixth-degree larceny. Smith also was charged with possession of narcotics and possession of burglary tools. Each was held on $1,000 bond and scheduled to appear May 3 in Bridgeport Superior Court, police said.

"This is excellent police work initiated by our patrol officers," said Police Lt. James Perez. "Little by little it unwinds from an initial contact out of curiousity to the solving of three cases, or possibly more, of cars being broken into."

Police said Herrera told officers he and Smith had been walking around Fairfield stealing from unlocked cars for more than a month.

Perez advised residents to lock their car doors, saying they were enabling criminal behavior in Fairfield by leaving the doors unlocked. "Because of the lapse in judgment or failure to lock doors, you are inviting criminals onto your property which is a very dangerous act...We don't want to be known in Fairfield for this. We want it to go away," Perez said.

Two sewing machines valued at $2,500 each were reported stolen from House of Formals on Villa Avenue in Fairfield sometime within the past month. The theft was reported to police at 12:16 p.m. Tuesday. There was no sign of forced entry to the business, police said.

A counterfeit $100 bill was passed at Mobil on the Run on Black Rock Turnpike in Fairfield on Tuesday afternoon. Police said the counterfeit bill was passed by a former employee and that the bill was taken as evidence.

A 23-year-old Fairfield woman accused of fighting with a 16-year-old girl on School Street in Fairfield on Tuesday afternoon was arrested on charges of second-degree breach of peace and second-degree threatening.

Police said Olivia Hobbs, of Division Avenue, went to School Street to confront the 16-year-old girl for talking about Hobbs' cousin. Hobbs told the girl she had a gun and would put a bullet in her head, police said. Hobbs punched the girl on the left side of her head and a fight ensued, leaving both Hobbs and the 16-year-old girl with cuts on their knees and scratches on their backs, police said. The teen told officers she fought in self defense, police said.

Hobbs was released on a promise to appear in Bridgeport Superior Court on April 29, police said.

A change purse containing $18 was reported stolen from the room of a patient in Cambridge Manor, a nursing home on Easton Turnpike in Fairfield. The patient's daughter noticed it missing on Tuesday, police said.

Two Bridgeport women were each arrested on larceny charges Tuesday morning after they allegedly stole clothing from Kohl's, a department store on Tunxis Hill Road in Fairfield.

Roselyn Savage, 35, of Fremont Street, and Brenda Mendez Diaz, 33, also of Fremont Street, were each charged with sixth-degree larceny, conspiracy to commit sixth-degree larceny and risk of injury to a minor after they tried to leave the store with about $300 worth of clothes that they didn't pay for, police said. Police said they committed the thefts while in the care of two 2-year-old children.

A loss prevention officer at Kohl's detained Savage and Diaz as they tried to leave the store with clothing for young teens and men and the women were arrested about 11:49 a.m., police said. Savage and Diaz were each released on a promise to appear in Bridgeport Superior Court on April 26, police said.

A 56-year-old Fairfield woman was charged with sixth-degree larceny Tuesday evening after she allegedly stole about $188 worth of clothes from Kohl's, a department store on Tunxis Hill Road in Fairfield.

Stephany E. Arons, of Black Rock Turnpike, was released on a promise to appear in Bridgeport Superior Court on April 26, police said.

Police said Arons left the store, heading east, and that a patrol officer saw her on Greenfield Street in Fairfield being followed by a loss prevention officer at Kohl's. Officers caught Arons in a backyard on Greenfield Street and found her with merchandise stolen from the store, which included a white shirt that she was wearing, police said.

A 28-year-old Hartford man was arrested on a charge of third-degree larceny Tuesday after a patrol officer ran a license plate on the car he was driving on Black Rock Turnpike in Fairfield and determined the car was stolen that day in Hartford, police said.

Ruhan Karjohn, of Westburn Parkway, was driving a 1994 Honda Accord valued at $3,000 north on Black Rock Turnpike when the officer checked the license plate, and, after determining the car was stolen, followed Karjohn onto the Merritt Parkway, where Karjohn stopped at a Mobil gas station on the parkway's northbound side. Officers ordered Karjohn out of the car at gunpoint and arrested him, police said.

Karjohn was held in lieu of $10,000 bond and was scheduled to appear May 2 in Bridgeport Superior Court, police said.