Two Men Arrested in Connection with Recent Burglary Spree

Darien police charged a Bridgeport and a Trumbull man on Wednesday and Thursday in connection with the sudden rash of vehicle and home burglaries that swept through town in recent weeks.

Arrested were:

• Nelson Emilio Rivera, age 24, of Trumbull, who turned himself in to Darien police on Wednesday in response to the warrant for his arrest. He was held on $50,000 bond before he was arraigned in state Superior Court in Stamford. Rivera was charged with one count each of second- and third- degree burglary and two counts each of credit card theft and illegal use of a credit card.
• Livelle Sampson age 21, a resident of a home at 52 Rock Ridge Cir. in Bridgeport after a search and seizure warrant was issued allowing Darien police inside the home. Sampson was charged with one count of second-degree burglary. As of Thursday evening, Sampson was being held on $50,000 bond.

A news release emailed at 11:25 p.m. Thursday from police Sgt. Jeremiah P. Marron Jr. gives a vague account of the investigation, leaving it unclear how police came to arrest the two men. The investigation is ongoing, according to police.

At some stage of the investigation, a license plate reader was used. According to Thursday's news release: "Intelligence needed to determine the identity of the suspects in these incidents was obtained from a License Plate Reader (LPR) that was mounted on the exterior of a marked Darien Police Patrol car. 

"License Plate readers automatically scan hundreds of vehicles a day in the Town of Darien.  The suspect vehicle used to commit these crimes had driven past the patrol car on the night the incidents took place.  The LPR automatically scanned the registration plate and the data was later downloaded as part of the investigation."

Darien police have had license plate readers for the past three years, the news release noted.

Marron's Thursday news release and a previous news release gave this information:

• Last week, Darien police searched a motor vehicle and found some possessions stolen from the recent Darien burglaries. (Police haven't said why that motor vehicle was searched.) Police also found items taken during burglaries of motor vehicles in Cheshire, North Haven, Meriden, and from a residential burglary in Wilton.

• On Tuesday, more Darien possessions from the same rash of burglaries were found during the search of a home in Trumbull, along with some items stolen in Trumbull burglaries.

• Police on Tuesday said they had issued an arrest warrant for a person living at the home. The description of that warrant matches the charges against Rivera.

• On Wednesday, Rivera of Trumbull turned himself in. His initial bond was $50,000. At some point on Wednesday or Thursday he was arraigned in state Superior Court in Stamford.

• Also on Wednesday, Darien police, with the assistance of police from Wilton, Trumbull and Bridgeport, searched the Rock Ridge Circle home of Livelle Sampson in Bridgeport. They found "numerous suspected stolen items including a shotgun and a .25 caliber automatic handgun." They arrested Sampson, but didn't say whether or not he was arraigned in court.

In the recent spate of burglaries, the first set occurred on Friday and Saturday, June 1 to 2, when at least nine motor vehicles on streets off of Brookside Road, on the east side of town, were hit.

Then, on Sunday and Monday, June 17 to 18, about double that number were entered, along with homes—in every case, burglars went through unlocked doors.

Editor's note: This article originally was published on Friday. The time stamp has been changed for layout purposes on the Home page of Darien Patch. Darien Patch previously published these articles about the recent epidemic of burglaries in town:

• (Wednesday)

• (Monday)

• (June 19)

• (June 11)

• (June 5)