Police Warn Public After String of Daytime Burglaries

The Waterford Police Department is asking residents to be vigilant and to call the department if they see anything unusual after a string of daytime burglaries this weekend.

Since Thursday, there have been three unsolved daytime residential burglaries in town – two near Pepperbox Road and the third on Cross Road, according to Waterford Police Lt. Jeff Nixon. What makes the burglaries unusual is they are happening in the daytime, although Nixon said there isn’t enough information yet to consider them related.

“There are some similarities, but there are some differences as well,” Nixon said. “They are under investigation.”

Nixon is encouraging residents to call police if anything looks suspicious, and again encouraged people to lock their doors. A vigilant resident led to the arrest of somebody allegedly stealing from cars this weekend, he said.

That Arrest

This weekend, a resident called the Waterford Police Department after they saw a man reportedly trying to open cars in a commercial parking lot, Nixon said. A Waterford Police Officer soon found the man, 37-year-old Jose Garcia of New London, in a residential neighborhood, Nixon said.

Garcia, in a discussion with the police officer, allegedly said he was stealing from unlocked cars around Waterford, both in commercial lots and residential neighborhoods, Nixon said. Garcia allegedly would walk around a parking lot or a neighborhood, stopping at every car to pull on the door handle, and if it was unlocked he allegedly would go inside and steal items within the car, Nixon said.

Garcia was allegedly stealing mostly cash, cell phones, GPS devices and other small items he could grab, Nixon said. He was charged Monday with two counts of third-degree burglary, two counts of sixth-degree larceny, possession of narcotics and third-degree criminal mischief.

Nixon encouraged people to lock their car doors, even if they are just parking on the road or in a driveway, and to keep items like GPS devices, cell phones or pocketbooks hidden within the car. He also said Garcia would have not been caught had it not been for a resident telling the police about him, and encouraged the public to call police if something looks suspicious.

The Waterford Police Department’s non-emergency phone line is 860-442-9451.