Crime & Safety

I.D. Thief Foiled in Collecting Darien Loot

You can steal someone's identity to buy things under the victim's name, but then you have to get the goods in a way that won't get you caught; in Darien, recently, a thief had some trouble with that.

Pay for merchandise for delivery using a victim's stolen identification (so the victim later gets the bill). Have the goods delivered to the victim, but intercept the delivery.

That's how describe a scheme used in town by a man driving an Audi with New York license plates.

One advantage of the scheme is that it may take longer for the victim to find out about the theft. One disadvantage is that it can be hard to intercept the delivery.

Find out what's happening in Darienwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Interception failed twice this month for a thief trying to persuade a UPS driver to hand over a delivery before the driver got to the house. Darien police give this account of the incidents:

May 4: Bayberry Lane victim

Find out what's happening in Darienwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

At about 10:40 a.m. on Friday, May 4, a man described as being in his late 20s or early 30s and driving a silver Audi with New York license plates approached a UPS driver in the parking lot of 3 Parklands Dr.

The man asked the driver to give him packages that were about to be delivered to Bayberry Lane. The man even showed the driver a New York driver's license with the name of the recipient.

The driver refused to hand over the packages and later told police that he thought the license was bogus. Police found that the packages contained four Hewlitt-Packard Pavilion Notebook computers. None of them had been ordered by the resident, who was a victim of identity theft.

May 8: Prospect Avenue victim

At 12:25 p.m. on Tuesday, May 8, the same man, still driving the silver Audi, approached a UPS driver at 90 Post Rd., asking for the same thing, but with packages headed for a Prospect Avenue address.

The driver refused, because it was the same driver that the same man had approached the Friday before on Parklands Drive. The man drove off in his silver Audi.

In this case, the man wanted three packages, each containing a Hewlitt-Packard laptop. Again, the town resident never ordered the items and was the victim of identity theft.

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Editor's note: These other police reports have been published Monday on Darien Patch:

 


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