MONROE, CT — Stop & Shop’s loss prevention officers reported a shoplifting incident at the Monroe Turnpike store Saturday.
Police said the store reviewed video surveillance footage recorded on March 25, showing two white males enter the store separately, put several items in shopping carts and leaving without paying.
The stolen items had a total value of over $398 and included cases of Red Bull energy drink, packages of NyQuil and DayQuil, and paper towels, according to the report. Police said one of the suspects also stole six packages of shrimp.
Narcotics charges
An East Haven man was charged with narcotics offenses following a traffic stop on Main Street Saturday night.
Juan Carlos Torres, 26, of 77 Victor St. in East Haven, was charged with use of drug paraphernalia, and possession of a controlled substance or more-than-a-half-ounce of cannabis. He was released on a promise to appear in court on April 6.
At around 7:23 p.m. Saturday, a police officer drove behind Torres’s vehicle and noticed tires cross over the fog line, police said, adding the officer conducted a traffic stop near North Brook Drive.
Police said Torres’s registration was expired and the officer noticed an open container of a hard cider drink and smelled the odor of marijuana inside the vehicle.
Torres admitted to having marijuana and showed the officer a plastic bag of pot and his bong, according to police. A search of the car found marijuana, drug paraphernalia, edibles and a container of a yellow, orange wax-like substance that was in the driver’s side door, police said.
Police said the substance was a highly concentrated form of THC made by heating up raw marijuana leaves and extracting the oils. The wax typically has four times the amount of THC as regular marijuana, police said, adding it generally takes five-to-six ounces of marijuana to make one ounce of wax.
Torres participated in field sobriety tests and was found to be sober, according to the report.
Passenger hospitalized after crash
The passenger of a Volvo SE was taken to St. Vincent’s Medical Center after complaining of injuries resulting from a two-vehicle-crash at the intersection of Monroe Turnpike (Route 111) and Elm Street Sunday afternoon.
Witnesses told police the driver of the Volvo was heading north on Route 111 when he went through a red light and struck a BMW 528xi, which was heading east on Elm Street.
The collision pushed the BMW, driven by a 63-year-old Monroe woman, into the driveway of Chase Bank, damaging a stop sign and landscaping, according to the report.
The driver of the Volvo, Diego Duchi, 27, of McKinley Avenue in Bridgeport, told officers he also had a green light, but because of conflicting testimony from eyewitnesses and the other driver, Duchi received an infraction for failure to obey a traffic signal.
A fraudulent SBA loan
In a complaint filed Sunday, a man told police someone applied for a $20,000 Small Business Administration loan by fraudulently using the name of his Monroe business
His company discovered this after receiving paperwork stating the first payment for the SBA loan was due in August, police said. The man told police he did not apply for and did not receive any funds.
Barn burglary on Elm
A lock was broken off a door to gain entry to a barn on Elm Street, sometime between Saturday and Sunday.
Police said the owner doesn’t know if anything was taken during the burglary and is currently doing an inventory of her belongings to determine if anything is missing.
