Police Blotter for May 24: Wires Cut Before Burglary on Mine Hill Road

A house on Mine Hill Road in Fairfield was burglarized on Monday after phone lines and alarm wires were cut, police said.

The burglary, reported by a contractor working on the house, took place sometime between 8 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., police said. A rear door had pry marks and had been forced open, police said.

Police said dresser drawers in a master bedroom had been ransacked, but nothing of value appeared to be stolen.

A 23-year-old Bridgeport man accused of stealing three 12-packs of Red Bull valued at $72 from Super Stop & Shop on Kings Highway Cutoff in Fairfield was arrested Monday.

Paul Gaites Jr., of Montgomery Street, was charged with sixth-degree larceny and was released on a promise to appear in Bridgeport Superior Court May 31, police said.

Police said Gaites put the Red Bull in a brown paper bag and went to a self checkout line where he paid for two yogurts but not the Red Bull. He then left the supermarket and got into a Honda Civic and tried to leave but was detained by supermarket security until officers arrived, police said.

A resident on Valley View Road in Fairfield received a surprise when an Apple Store in Palisades, N.Y. sent him an e-mail thanking him for purchasing three Apple 4g iPhones.

Police said the man told officers he didn't buy any iPhones and was the victim of identity theft. The phones were deactivated, police said.

Police are looking for a heavyset woman with a bad wheeze.

Police said the woman tried to pass a counterfeit $100 bill on Monday at Party City on Black Rock Turnpike in Fairfield after successfully passing a counterfeit $100 bill at a Party City in Norwalk. Employees at Party City in Norwalk also described the woman as having a bad wheeze, police said.

The woman, described in the police report as black, wearing a tan coat and "breathing with a bad wheeze," brought a receipt from Party City in Norwalk into the Fairfield Party City and received $47 cash after returning merchandise that she had purchased in Norwalk with a counterfeit $100 bill, police said.

The woman then tried to buy merchandise in the Fairfield Party City with a counterfeit $100 bill but the cashier told her she couldn't break a $100 bill, police said. The woman told the cashier she would look for smaller bills in her car, and then an unidentified man went to the cashier and bought $11 worth of merchandise with a counterfeit $100 bill, receiving $89 back in real money, police said.

A purse was reported stolen from the Seagrape Cafe, a bar on Reef Road in Fairfield, early Saturday, police said.

Police said the victim reported to police on Monday that she had the purse on the back of a chair while she was at the bar and that it was stolen sometime between 1:20 a.m. and 1:40 a.m. Saturday. Police said the purse contained credit cards, a debit card and checkbook. It wasn't clear how much cash was in the purse; the report identified the purse and its contents as being valued at $1,000, police said.

An unidentified man stole a jacket from a rack outside Eastern Mountain Sports on Black Rock Turnpike in Fairfield on Monday. Police said the man, described as Hispanic and about 35 years old, then got into the passenger seat of a mid-sized blue car parked in a fire lane, and the car left in an unknown direction.

A 40-year-old Fairfield woman was charged with third-degree assault and disorderly conduct on Monday after she allegedly hit her ex-husband in the back with a mop handle when he refused her request for $1,000, police said.

Moira McNeil of Fairfield Woods Road was released on a promise to appear in Bridgeport Superior Court on Tuesday, police said.

Police said the ex-husband called police and that officers saw an injury to his back. McNeil and her ex-husband have been divorced for a year but live in the same house with their daughter, police said.

A Fairfield boy and girl stole six Lady Gaga compact discs, valued at $15 each, from Radio Shack on Black Rock Turnpike in Fairfield on Monday, police said.

Police said the juveniles stole the CDs from a display in the front of the store and fled on foot on Black Rock Turnpike about 5:46 p.m. The boy was described as white and wearing a royal blue shirt; the girl was described as having blonde hair up in a bun, police said.

An unoccupied house on Congress Street in Fairfield was burglarized Monday afternoon.

Police said an alarm activated about 1:07 p.m. and arriving officers found a door off a back deck closed but unlocked. A master bedroom appeared to be the only room in the house that was disturbed.

A door leading from the house to a garage had been forced open, and the homeowner is compiling an inventory of missing belongings, police said.