North Castle Police Catch Thieves After Attempt to Steal Car, Chase

North Castle police arrested three Connecticut men last Friday following a car and foot chase after one of the suspects tried to enter and apparently steal a car that was occupied in the CVS parking lot in Armonk.

Charged in the incident were Carlos Manuel Delarosa, 18, of Meridien Conn., Tyrique Carlos Hill, 18, of New Britain, Conn. and Donavyne Camilo Duran, 21, of Waterbury, Conn. Two of the suspects were apprehended within a half-hour of the initial call and the third suspect was taken into custody a short time after that, said North Castle Police Chief Peter Simonsen.

The incident occurred as North Castle officials have been grappling with a rash of reports of people entering unlocked parked cars and vehicle thefts throughout the town.

“This isn’t just happening in North Castle but in Westchester and throughout the tristate area,” Simonsen said.

However, in this incident, it appeared that the suspects didn’t realize that there was a woman in the parked vehicle they tried to enter, Simonen said.

Police received a call from the woman while she was sitting in her car in the lot at 450 Main St. at 4:28 p.m. on May 17 when a 2022 black Dodge pulled up alongside her vehicle. One of the suspects got out of the Dodge, which is owned by Duran’s father, and tried to enter the woman’s vehicle, police said.

When he realized there was someone inside, he hurried back into the Dodge and fled in an unknown direction onto Main Street, according to North Castle police. Multiple officers responded to the area searching for the vehicle that the woman had described in her call.

A short time later, police received another call from a Wrights Mill Estates resident reporting a suspicious vehicle that fit the description of the car that had left the CVS lot. Officers headed to that location and encountered the Dodge, which tried to flee, ramming an officer’s patrol car. Other police cars tried to engage the fleeing vehicle, but the driver wouldn’t comply with police orders to stop.

Police said officers followed the vehicle to Sterling Road South, when it went off the roadway and collided with shrubbery on private property. The three occupants then fled the vehicle and were chased by officers on foot, running into a densely wooded area.

Law enforcement established a perimeter, while other North Castle officers and a state trooper with a K-9 arrived. Two suspects were apprehended in a swampy wooded area a short time later, police said.

While searching for the third occupant of the car, another call was received by police from a Yale Farms resident, who had encountered a suspicious man in his garage. Police said the suspect fled on foot after the resident spotted him and was pursued by officers in the area. He was soon caught hiding in brush and taken into custody by officers. A Westchester County police helicopter helped guide local police to the location of the final suspect.

No officers or any of the suspects were injured. Simonsen said it helped police that the suspects’ car was damaged, and while still operational, had been compromised. It was also helpful that the incident occurred shortly after a shift change and there were seven town police officers either on patrol or at headquarters at the time the call was received, he said.

Simonsen lauded the officers as well as the citizens who accurately provided descriptions of the activity they saw without delay.

“Were it not for the residents’ reports or the witnesses’ descriptions we may not have been able to apprehend as quickly as we did,” he said.

North Castle police were also helped by county and state police while Greenwich officers were stationed at the state border in case the suspects tried to cross over into Connecticut.

The incident again highlighted that there are groups of car thieves, many of whom are operating out of Danbury and Waterbury, Conn., the chief said. Simonsen said they often check out affluent areas looking for expensive vehicles to steal.

He urged all car owners to lock their cars, take their keys or fobs and not to leave any valuables in their vehicle.

Delarosa was charged with second-degree burglary, a felony, for entering a residents’ garage, third-degree attempted grand larceny, second-degree reckless endangerment, third-degree fleeing an officer in a motor vehicle, fourth-degree criminal mischief, second-degree obstructing governmental administration and third-degree criminal trespass. He was held at the Westchester County Jail on $2,500 bail.

Hill and Duran were charged with the same attempted grand larceny, obstructing governmental administration and criminal trespass. Both were released on their own recognizance.