Crime & Safety

Student Charged in Phone Pilfering

School surveillance video showed theft; Smoke bomb incident deemed an arson.

A 16-year-old Greenwich High School student is facing a sixth-degree larceny charge stemming from the theft of an iPhone at the school.

According to a Greenwich Police report, the unidentified male student was identified as a suspect when investigators reviewed school surveillance videos. The theft occurred June 7 but wasn't reported until June 12.

The teen admitted to police that he had stolen the phone which was recovered. The teen was released on a promise to appear June 26 in the Juvenile Matters Division of state Superior Court in Stamford.

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Mason Street smoke bomb incident considered an arson

Find out what's happening in Greenwichwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Greenwich detectives are treating the detonation of a smoke bomb inside a Mason Street apartment building an arson.

According to Capt. Timothy Berry, the potential damage that could have been caused  by the June 12 incident is what prompted investigators to treat the incident as an arson.

At about 8 p.m. June 12, a structure fire was reported at 24 Mason St., a multi-story building that houses retail space and apartments. It turned out that someone set off a smoke bomb. "It did create a potentially very hazardous condition so we're treating it as arson," Berry said.

"It is not a joke. It is not a very funny thing to do. There is very little entertainment value to something that could've been tragic. It initially came to us as a structure fire and the Greenwich Fire Department responded" with a full complement of squads and shut down that area of the downtown street, Berry explained.

"The smoke bomb was lit in the hallway intentionally," Berry added. There was little damage in the building where one tenant was home at the time of the incident.

Berry said smoke bomb incidents aren't common, however, he acknowledged a incident April 6 in which the 2,700 student school was evacuated when . with the incident April 19.

Berry said anyone with information about the incident should call the Detective Division at 203-622-8054.


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