Stratford - Police Blotter

A Shea Terrace resident reported to police on Feb. 23 that someone stole the front license plate of his mother’s vehicle. Michael Paternostro told police that the car was parked in the driveway when he noticed the plate missing that morning. Police entered the plate number into the missing and stolen tracking system.

On Feb. 23, Officers Policano and Hamm were on patrol when they saw a car traveling on Barnum Avenue without a front license plate. A check revealed that the pate was no longer assigned to a vehicle, which prompted officers to pull over the vehicle driven by James Lozada, 33, of Bridgeport. Lozada was found to have a suspended license. He was charged with operating an unregistered vehicle, no insurance, misuse of a registration plate and operating while under suspension and released on a promise to appear in court on March 3.

On Feb. 24 Officer Santos was dispatched to Salerno’s Pizza at 6:20 a.m. on Barnum Avenue on a report of a burglary. Upon arrival, the officer noticed that the glass on the exit door to the left of the front entrance had been broken. Police could visibly see that appear to be pry marks on the frame section of the door. Officer Santos and Lazaro went into the restaurant to see if anyone was in the building and as they approached the kitchen section they could see some change on the floor near the cash register. The register appeared to be damaged. According to police, it looked like the suspect was in a hurry and had dropped most of the change from the register onto the floor. No other damage was noticed and no suspects were found in the building. A business representative came to the scene and determined that $23 appeared missing in cash from the front register. The person said a second cash register, a donation box and some tip money was not touched. The cost to repair the forced door was unknown. Stratford Detective Grindrod also responded and photographed the scene. Police also contacted security camera officials to get a copy of the recordings on disk. The burglary was reported to police by a passerby on foot and the investigation is continuing.