New Canaan Police on April 21 arrested a 37-year-old Darien woman by warrant following a larceny investigation.
On March 16 (a Sunday), officers were dispatched to Togs on South Avenue on a report of a theft from the store, according to an arrest warrant application obtained by NewCanaanite.com. There, an employee told police that at about 5:30 p.m. the prior day “the suspect came into the store and tried on eight different articles of clothing,” according to the police affidavit, written by Officer Austin Malizia.
The suspect then “came up to her [the Togs employee] and explained that one of the dresses was ripped,” which it was, the affidavit said.
The suspect left the store about 20 minutes later and when the employee started closing up soon after, “she noticed that a dress was missing,” the arrest warrant application said.
The following day, the Togs manager “ran an inventory of the items in the store and found that three articles of clothing were not accounted for,” according to the police affidavit, signed by a prosecuting attorney and state Superior Court judge.
“The three items included a cashmere sweater, a Yordana dress and a Clara mini dress totaling $875,” the application said.
The employee described the suspect as a “white female with a small build wearing a black jacket, black spandex pants, dirty blonde hair carrying a large black purse,” it said. Security footage showed her stuff the dress “from a hanger into her large black purse before she entered the changing room,” it said.
The manager provided police with an itemized list of the eight articles of clothing that the woman had brought into the changing room and “of the eight, only five were accounted for, the other three were not,” the application said.
“Security footage showed one of the dresses on a hanger inside of the dressing room door,” the warrant said. “When the suspect left the store, the security footage showed an empty hanger on the inside of the changing room door.”
Police were able to use security footage from Togs and Mobil across the street to show the woman using a dark-colored Jeep SUV. She left Togs at about 5:52 p.m., “went into her vehicle, and then went into J. Crew,” the arrest warrant application said.
New Canaan Police used an instant messaging platform used by law enforcement, called Slack, and found that Greenwich Police had been working on a similar larceny case that identified the Darien woman. Authorities used another technology platform, Flock Safety, to identify the Jeep as belonging to the Darien woman. On the day of the theft from Togs, Flock’s license plate recognition software clocked the Jeep at Farm and Old Stamford Roads traveling northbound toward New Canaan at 5:24 p.m., and then heading southbound back toward Darien at South Avenue and Gerdes Road at 6:15 p.m. A DMV “blowback” image of the woman’s license matched the security footage of the suspect, the application said.
Police charged her with fifth-degree larceny.
She turned herself in on April 21. Police released the woman on $2,500 bond and she was scheduled to appear May 2 in state Superior Court. She has not yet pleaded. Her arraignment now is scheduled for May 16, Connecticut Judicial Branch records show.