MONROE, CT — Police arrested a Bridgeport woman, who allegedly stole $300 cash from a Newtown man during a business transaction, then took off in his mother’s gray Kia Soul Wednesday afternoon.
At around 3:44 p.m., officers were called to the shopping center at 701 Main St. in Monroe, where the 52-year-old Newtown man and his 81-year-old mother reported the theft.
The man told police they met with the woman in Bridgeport and arranged to go to his house in Newtown for a “business transaction,” declining to go into further detail.
The woman drove them in his mother’s SUV. They stopped at an ATM at Newtown Savings Bank, where he withdrew $500 and, when he was counting the money, he said the woman snatched $300 from his hand.
Then she drove erratically, at a high rate of speed, swerving into the wrong lane and driving up a curb before stopping in the parking lot at 701 Main St. in Monroe, where she told the victim and his mother to get out of the Kia, according to the report.
After they got out, the woman headed south on Main Street (Route 25) toward Trumbull.
Police said detectives later found the Kia, unoccupied and idling in the parking lot of Osteria Romana, 89 Main St, and approached the doors of the restaurant, where they found the woman.
They questioned her, but she was evasive and would not even tell them her name, according to police.
Officers found drugs on her, which later tested positive for heroin and crack/cocaine, according to police, who said she also had a pipe, copper mesh and 18 syringes.
After fingerprinting her for narcotics charges, police said there was a match in the system. She was identified as Sira Liz Rivera, 34, whose last known address was 23 Madison Ave. in Bridgeport.
She was charged with interfering with a police officer, three counts of possession of a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia and failure to keep drugs in a proper container.
The victims declined to press charges for the stolen vehicle and the stolen money.
Rivera was held on $10,000 bond for the Monroe charges. She was also served with two active arrest warrants from Bridgeport for failure to appear in court on unrelated charges. She was held on a total bond of $150,000 for those charges.
The two previous arrests included a first-degree larceny – motor vehicle charge, several narcotics and interfering with an officer charges, and an unauthorized conveyance of items into a correctional or humane institution charge, according to the State of Connecticut Judicial Branch website.
Monroe police held Rivera overnight and she appeared in court the next day.
Cooking materials, glitter
A 27-year-old Barn Hill Road woman told police someone vandalized her gold Honda Civic on Thursday morning.
Police said the car was covered with cooking materials and purple glitter. The victim told officers she believes the incident occurred around 4 a.m., when she was awakened by her dog barking.
Police said she looked out the window and did not see anyone outside.
The estimated cost to clean the Honda is $250 to $300. The incident is under investigation.
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