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Roman Nieves, 37, of Sherwood Avenue, was charged with third-degree burglary and third-degree larceny in the Oct. 19 incident, police said. He was in court Friday on another matter and was held on $50,000 bond for the Fairfield case, police said.
The case began when a Sherman Street resident reported a Ford Explorer stolen from outside her home on Oct. 19. It was recovered on Claremont Avenue in Bridgeport on Oct. 31, police said.
A detective searching the car found several items that did not belong to the owner, including baby blankets, juice boxes and a receipt for baby formula from a Price Rite in Bridgeport.
An officer went to the Boston Avenue store and viewed security video from the time of the purchase on the receipt, which led to Nieves’ girlfriend, who was living at Operation Hope shelter with her three children, police said.
Police officers recalled interacting with a man they believe to be Nieves in the area of the stolen car on Oct. 30 and Nov. 1. A police sergeant noticed he had a pronounced limp similar to the man caught on a home surveillance video of a suspicious person entering a Land Rover outside a Birch Road home around the time of the Sherman Street theft, police said.
Police checked with area pawn shops to see if they could find any of the items missing from the stolen Explorer. That led them to East Coast Pawn on Fairfield Avenue in Bridgeport.
A check of the pawn shop’s surveillance video showed a man believed to be Nieves parking the Ford outside the shop the day it was reported stolen, police said.
Police believe he and his girlfriend used the stolen car as their own until it was recovered.
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