Fairfield County, Stamford | featured news

STAMFORD-Police have released a video of a burglar who struck a home on Aberdeen Street on January 26.

Property crimes Sgt. Sean Scanlan is hoping that the public can help his investigators identify the criminal and get him behind bars before he strikes another home.

The interrupted burglary occurred at 11:13 a.m. Friday when the suspect, described as a black male about five-feet eight inches tall with a dark completion and very short hair with a medium build tried to get into an Aberdeen Street home.

STAMFORD-A traffic stop for tinted windows led police to seize more than a pound of marijuana along with nearly an ounce of cocaine on Tuesday night, police said.

Capt. Richard Conklin said officers on the Narcotics and Organized Crime squad were patrolling Merrell Avenue at about 8:30 p.m. on the city’s West Side when they spotted a Toyota Highlander with heavily tinted windows and decided to pull it over.

When the officers got up to the car they could smell marijuana.

STAMFORD — A hard-working patrol lieutenant and the commander of the police department’s bomb squad have been promoted.

Lt. Diedrich Hohn, who has run the Youth Bureau and Bureau of Criminal investigations and also served in the Narcotics and Organized Crime Squad, has been promoted to captain and will command patrol units in the downtown area.

Sgt. Lou DeRubeis was promoted to lieutenant after 20 years with the department. DeRubeis, 43, will remain in charge of the bomb squad while serving in patrol.

Hohn, 47, will take over for Capt.

STAMFORD — The criminal prosecution of Laurie Hollywood has been dropped after the city’s former animal shelter manger was accepted into a diversionary program for first offenders that will expunge a single count of reckless endangerment against her.

Hollywood, 46, was granted participation into the Accelerated Rehabilitation program by Judge Gary White late Wednesday afternoon. Hollywood is being made to serve only one day in the probationary program, which can be made to run for up to two years.

STAMFORD — The Ferguson Library’s Harry Bennett Branch is raising money to replace worn carpet throughout the building.

The library is asking for donations to replace carpet that in some areas is held together by duct tape at the Vine Road branch. It has already raised $182,000 for the $280,000 project, according to its GoFundMe.com page.

“We have found a new durable flooring product that many other libraries use that is washable and made from recycled content,” it wrote on the page.

STAMFORD — Changes are in motion for the city’s public schools.

While the Board of Education remains largely the same, and new president David Mannis is adamant about picking up where former president Geoff Alswanger left off, the central office is abuzz with shifts in leadership positions and an incoming strategic plan that will shape the district’s goals in the coming years.

The plan, according to Superintendent of Schools Earl Kim, is a blueprint for the district going forward, built with input from staff across the schools.

STAMFORD — “Beetle Bailey” creator Mort Walker, who chronicled the mishaps of the world’s laziest U.S. Army private since 1950 while maintaining an unrivaled run of work in the comics industry, died at his Stamford, Connecticut, home Saturday at 94.

Walker’s work ethic was defined by “Beetle Bailey,” the longest-running comic strip drawn by its original creator in the history of comics, but he published eight other strips at various points of his career.

It may not look like it but early morning commutes on Saturday could prove to be sneakily icy, according to the latest forecast from the National Weather Service.

The NWS issued a special weather advisory to warn residents of potentially icy conditions in the early hours of Saturday morning.

STAMFORD-A fire that destroyed the bedroom of a historic house in North Stamford Wednesday morning was touched off by a candle that came into contact with oxygen being used at the time, fire officials say.

Stamford Chief Fire Marshal Charles Spaulding said that a candle burning in the bedroom of a home at 509 Long Ridge Road came into contact with a tube leading from an oxygen tank being used by the 50-year-old female owner of the home.

“The oxygen tube touched the candle, causing the flame to flare up and ignite the linen bedding,” Spaulding said.