A Knapp Lane resident’s vigilance on Monday led to the arrest of three Bronx, N.Y. men on forgery and other charges after the trio tried to pick up a package they’d had delivered to his property using false identification.
At about 10:24 a.m., the resident phoned police saying he’d received a package with a name he didn’t recognize but that had his address, according to a press release issued by the New Canaan Police Department. Later, according to the police report, the Knapp Lane resident spotted a suspicious man on his property.
Armed with a detailed description of that man and his car, police located the vehicle quickly and nearby—on Old Stamford Road near Weed Street—and spoke to one of its passengers, a 27-year-old man from the Bronx, the report said.
Two other Bronx men—ages 42 and 53—also were in the vehicle, police said.
The passenger said that the trio was “doing charity work and picking up donated property.”
“Upon checking the identification of the three men officers located several fraudulent operators licenses with different names and addresses,” New Canaan Police said in the press release. “One of the licenses did contain the same name the package had along with the Knapp Lane address. The package contained an Apple iPhone and informational material from Asurion, which is a cellular phone insurance company.”
The 27-year-old man was charged with fifth-degree larceny and all three were charged with six counts of second-degree forgery, conspiracy to commit fifth-degree larceny and criminal attempts at fifth-degree larceny.
They were held on bond—ranging from $10,000 to $30,000 each—and scheduled to appear Jan. 13 in state Superior Court in Norwalk.
New Canaan police now are investigating whether the three men had committed fraud elsewhere.