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STAMFORD, Conn. It may have taken a little more than a year, but Stamford Police finally got their suspect Tuesday in a series of car thefts, Sgt. Peter diSpagna said.
Ramon Hernandez Colon, 51, of Valhalla, N.Y., had been incarcerated on similar charges in Westchester County, and Stamford Police had to wait for him to be released, the sergeant said.
Police received several complaints during a three-day span in February 2011 of a man test-driving cars that were for sale and never returning them, diSpagna said. The owners felt comfortable letting Colon take their cars because he left the vehicles he showed up in, diSpagna said. But those vehicles were stolen as well, diSpagna said.
Colon became a suspect almost immediately because police recognized the scheme and had arrested him for it eight years ago, diSpagna said. Stamford Police alerted the suspects parole officer in Westchester, who had Colon arrested when he showed up to a meeting in a stolen vehicle, diSpagna said.
We nipped it in the bud real quick, diSpagna said, adding that the complaints came not just from Stamford, but from New Haven and Westchester as well.
After being arrested, Colon told police this [car theft] is all he knows, diSpagna said, noting that he has been arrested 16 times since 1982 for various crimes.
Stamford Police charged him with four counts of third-degree larceny and one count of sixth-degree larceny. Colon appeared in court Wednesday afternoon.
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