Crime & Safety

Police Draw Guns in Car-Theft Arrest

Darien police said they recovered a stolen Chevrolet Suburban when they arrested a Massachusetts man.

With guns drawn, a Darien police officer told a Massachusetts man on Sunday to get out of the stolen vehicle he was driving, just before the man was arrested.

gave this account of the incident:

Shortly before 10:55 a.m., Moises Afonso of Dorchester, MA was driving a stolen 2008 Chevrolet Suburban on the Post Road in Darien. A license plate reader in the Darien officer's patrol vehicle, which was also traveling on the Post Road, alerted the officer that a possibly stolen vehicle had been detected.

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Afonso, 52, of Dorchester, MA, then drove onto the southbound traffic lanes of Interstate 95. The officer followed the car and stopped it on the Exit 10 off-ramp.

Police confirmed that the vehicle had been stolen from West Springfield, MA a few days before.

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When police searched the vehicle, they found checkbooks and a laptop computer that had been stolen weeks before from another vehcile in West Springfield.

Afonso was charged with second-degree Larceny (motor vehicle theft), fifth-degree larceny and operating a vehicle without a license. He was held in lieu of $20,000 bond, which he did not post. He was to appear Monday in state Superior Court in Stamford.

Capt. Frederick W. Komm, a Darien Police spokesman, said in a news release, "Afonso has an extensive criminal history which not surprisingly includes auto theft."

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Correction: The arrested man's last name is Afonso, not Alfonso. The police news release gave the correct spelling, while a photo label used the "L".

Editor's note: at 2:25 p.m., the time of the incident was added to the article.


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