Category: Local News

Man Steals Wine, Breaks into Apartment, Threatens Medics–(Bridgeport, CT – Feb. 25, 2013)  — A 20-year-old faces a variety of charges after he stole a bottle of wine from a bar, broke into a nearby apartment, threatened ambulance workers and then tried to escape from police.  It all happened Saturday over the course of several hours. Officer Michael Salemme initially was called to a downtown bar at 5:45 p.m. where a bartender said a man, whom she wouldn’t serve, came behind the bar, grabbed a $20 bottle of wine and ran off.  Police had responded to that report when, about an hour later, Officers Martin Pizighelli, Carlos Vazquez and Donald Bensey  were called to the 600 block of Fairfield Avenue for a burglary-in-progress in an apartment building. Police spoke to the resident, who said he arrived home to find a man with facial piercings prone in his kitchen, a window smashed and blood on the floor. The resident grabbed the man and threw him into the hallway. Police were called. The description of the suspect, who fled the scene, matched that of the wine thief.

Not long after police arrived, the suspect, later identified as Dylan Vitti, had returned and was found on the fire escape of the Fairfield Avenue building. He was identified by the resident as the intruder and subsequently identified by an employee at the bar as the thief. While en route to the hospital for treatment for cuts to his leg and knuckles, which he apparently suffered while breaking into the apartment, Vitti made threats to the medics. At the hospital, he provided a variety of different names to police and medical staff. And after he was treated, Vitti tried to escape but only made it a few steps before an officer corralled him. Vitti was charged with sixth-degree larceny, second-degree burglary, second-degree threatening, interfering with police and criminal attempt at escape from custody. Vitti is believed to be homeless. His last known address was on Saber Lane in Stony Brook, N.Y.

Employee Assaulted at Gentleman’s Club–As we were first to report!

A woman was assaulted with a beer bottle Saturday at a strip club.  Officers Ashley Taylor and Jose Paz were sent to Pleasant Moments Café. at 1 William St., on a report of an assault at 1 a.m. Saturday. Police found the victim, an 18-year-old employee, bleeding from the head and being tended to by other dancers in a dressing room. According to the victim, she brought a customer into a room for a private lap dance and when she finished he would not allow her leave, made sexual advances and began choking her.  She managed to escape and ran out of the room. Before they fled, however, a second male, who was with the assailant, threw a beer bottle at her that struck the victim on the head. She was treated at the hospital for her injuries. No arrests have been made.

Burglary Investigated at Huntington Turnpike Business–Police are investigating a break-in at a Huntington Turnpike business.  Officers Michael Davila and Juan Esquilin were sent to the Dollar Tree store Saturday morning on a report of an attempted break in. An employee there reported that someone had unsuccessfully tried to break into the store’s cash office by cutting through a wall from an adjacent, vacant storefront.  While the officers investigated, the officers observed a hole in the sheet-metal roof inside the vacant space and a hole in the wall leading to a different business, Harbor Freight Tools, at 345 Huntington Turnpike. Officers spoke to the store manager, who had just arrived at the business, and discovered the wall had been breached to an office and that a safe containing three days worth of receipts had been cut open with some type of power tool. Detectives are investigating.