Darien police charged a Stamford man who was driving around with a lamp post hanging out the windows of his vehicle and allegedly confessed that he'd stolen the pole from a Norwalk parking lot, police said Monday.
According to authorities, Jose Rodriguez, 29, of 398 Fairfield Avenue in Stamford, was operating his vehicle at 8:33 a.m. in the area of Post Road near the I-95 Exit 13 entrance with a light pole hanging out the front passenger's side and rear driver's side windows.
An officer on patrol conducted a motor vehicle stop because Rodriguez had not attached red flags to the 15'-long post, creating a hazard, and asked Rodriguez where he'd acquired the lamp post, police said. Rodriguez reportedly told police he'd taken it from a parking lot in Norwalk, possibly from the Isaac Street lot off Wall Street, but was in the process of returning the post after a friend told him he'd get in trouble when he tried scrapping the metal.
Norwalk police were contacted but said they had not received any complaints of a missing lamp post but would investigate. Rodriguez was charged with an infraction of failure to secure a load, a $117 fine, pending the outcome of a Norwalk investigation. Darien police are holding the pole for safe keeping in the meantime.
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