Robert Magi, 20, is suspected of stealing so many items a court hearing scheduled for last week was delayed because authorities are still trying to contact all of his alleged victims.
That is some 40 people, according to statements made Jan. 4 in Superior Court in Derby.
Magi, of Fairfield, faces 84 criminal charges after police said he committed a string of burglaries in Oxford and Seymour.
His charges include multiple counts of larceny, burglary and conspiracy to commit burglary.
Magi has pleaded not guilty.
According to court documents, his target for many of the larceny and burglary charges appeared to be valuables inside cars.
One of Magi’s arrest warrants from November, a 13-page document drawn up by the Seymour Police Department, details a laundry list of stolen items totaling more than $7,800. The stolen items include an ATV, a motor bike, GPS devices, IPods, credit cards, debit cards and digital cameras.
He also stole a mini-van and a pick-up truck, police said. Magi told Seymour police he stole the mini-van just to buy a pack of cigarettes.
A second arrest warrant drawn up by the Oxford Resident Trooper’s Office charges Magi with breaking into 12 vehicles during late September and stealing anywhere between $500 and $1,000 worth of valuables.
Magi allegedly worked with 18-year-old Sean Lipka, but Lipka and Magi told police that Magi did most of the stealing while Lipka watched and waited.
Police charged Lipka with 12 counts of third-degree burglary, 12 counts of third-degree conspiracy to commit burglary and seven counts of sixth-degree larceny.
How They Focused On Him
Oxford and Seymour police on the lookout for stolen items cracked the case against Magi, according to the arrest warrant.
In early September, a hiker off Swan Avenue in Seymour found an ATV, a number of credit cards and other personal belongings in the woods. The hiker called Oxford police, who realized the ATV in question had been reported missing from Oakwood Drive in Seymour.
Oxford police contacted Seymour police.
Seymour police questioned the residents along Swan Avenue, one of whom was Magi’s ex-girlfriend. She called Magi, who said he bought the ATV from a friend.
Police contacted Magi’s friends, another ex-girlfriend and his mother — they confirmed that Magi stole and sold a host of items.
Then, on Sept. 26, Magi was riding a mountain bike on South Main Street when he spotted a Seymour police car.
“Upon seeing the patrol vehicle, Robert fled into an apartment and left the bicycle outside the residence …” according to warrant.
Officer Tony Renaldi recognized that the mountain bike as one that matched the description of one reported stolen.
Police arrested Magi for possession of stolen property.
While in custody, cops asked if he was involved with the thefts and if he had a drug problem. Magi then broke down, according to the arrest warrant.
“Magi put his head down and began to cry,” the warrant reads. “He said that he had no one to help him. Magi then said ‘I did it.’ He then proceeded to tell (Detective Louis Yustin) and I that he needed money and that he would go into cars and steal items from them, he explained the areas in town where he was doing this, which was consistent with the area the thefts did occur.”
Magi also traded the items for drugs, he told police.
Magi’s string of alleged burglaries follows similar incidents in Oxford and Seymour.
Douglas Fast, 47, of Stratford, is now the suspect of a string of daytime burglaries in Seymour and other area towns. Seymour police arrested him in late December after a police chase down Route 8.
Fast is due in Superior Court in Derby on Tuesday, Jan. 10.
The rash of burglaries boils down to narcotic dependence, said Oxford Resident State Trooper Sgt. Dan Semosky.
“It’s people having to pay for their habit,” he said. “That’s been my experience over 20 years. People might want to say it’s because of a down economy, but it’s drug dependence.”
Some of the stolen items linked to Magi have been recovered. Judge Kaplan will hear Magi’s case again on Jan. 30.
