Police are urging downtown merchants and others to be vigilant after a 41-year-old man—arrested Thursday on a misdemeanor larceny charge and now out on bond—had been acting strangely and “wandering aimlessly” in the area of downtown New Canaan.
The man, who gave police an address of Moss Beach, Calif., ate about $25 of food at an Elm Street café on the morning of Oct. 23 and left after his credit card was declined, saying he’d pay it later, according to a police report. Police around 11:30 a.m. caught up with him at the New Canaan Train Station and charged him with sixth-degree larceny.
During the course of their investigation, police discovered that on the prior day and then again on Thursday, the man had visited a Chase Bank branch in New Canaan to make the same exact inquiry about his accounts, and also had been discovered Thursday morning in the 24-hour Post Office lobby on Main Street by workers arriving there—and had been nonverbal when they asked him if they could help—and behaved in the same unusual way in an art gallery next door.
The man was described as about six feet tall, Indian and wearing a sweatshirt and shorts at the time of his arrest.
He was released on $1,000 bond and scheduled to appear Nov. 6 in state Superior Court in Norwalk.