Stamford Teens Are Charged with Downtown Robbery of Woman

Two Stamford teens are facing charges in connection with the brazen daytime purse snatching in downtown Stamford earlier this month.

According to Stamford Police, on Jan. 7 a 69-year-old woman was walking north on Bedford Street near Oak Street shortly after 1 p.m. when someone approached her from behind and attempted to forcibly take her purse. She resisted and the suspect continued to pull at the purse and she was forcibly thrown to the ground, according to Stamford Police. As she hit the ground her facial area hit the ground and caused a large contusion and she was transported to the hospital.

The victim’s stolen bag contained credit cards, a check book, approximately $500 cash, and an iPad, police said. Police didn’t find the suspects during a search of the area .

Two days later, a woman called the victim and told her that it appeared that her stepson had inadvertently purchased the iPad from another student from Stamford High School, according to police. The victim contacted to Sgt. Anthony Lupinacci and Officer Herry Junes of the department’s Detective Bureau.

The investigators then conducted several interviews and statements with several suspects and they were able to recover the stolen iPad, police said. In the interviews with several suspects it was determined that a 16-year-old boy acted as the aggressor and was the main perpetrator and that two other juveniles acted as lookouts or accessories to the crime, police said.

Police applied for arrest warrants for the three suspects.

On Jan. 23, detectives, arrested the 16-year-old on charges of second-degree robbery, assault on an elderly person and second-degree larceny. He was remanded to the Bridgeport Youth Detention Center. The second youth, a 14-year-old boy, was arrested on a charge of accessory at second-degree robbery and accessory at second-degree larceny. He youth was released in the custody of his parents. The third youth is still at large and police said they expect him to surrender.

In a statement, police said, “We would like to commend Sgt. (Anthony) Lupinacci, Officers (Jerry) Junes, (Rafael) Barquero and (Edward) Davis for solving this heinous and unprovoked attack on a person of the community. All officers took a special interest in solving this crime and made it a top priority to bring these suspects to justice. With the latest uptick in purse snatchings, we would like the community and future suspects be aware that we take this crime seriously and vigorously investigate these crimes.”

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