The recent rash of burglaries in Seymour was on Colin Driscoll’s mind when he turned his Jeep onto Patrick Drive around 11:30 a.m. Wednesday.
He had just spotted an unmarked police car — on patrol, he assumed, for the person who had been going around stealing cash and jewelry from Driscoll’s neighbors in Seymour.
Driscoll, 18, home from Virginia Wesleyan College for the holiday break, had also been warned about the burglaries by his parents.
So when he pulled up to his family’s house and spotted an older Ford Taurus station wagon in the driveway, Driscoll immediately felt something wasn’t right.
No one was supposed to be home.
His gut check led to the arrest of 47-year-old Douglas Fast, the Statford man suspected in pulling off burglaries in Seymour, Shelton and several other towns. Click here to read more about the allegations.
Driscoll stopped his vehicle outside the house and called his mother on his cell.
“She’s carpooled to work before. I figured it could have been an employee,” he said. “I called her and she said ‘No, no, call the police.’”
At roughly the same time, Driscoll saw the light go out in his mother’s bedroom.
“She never leaves the light on, so seeing it go off was kind of startling,” Driscoll said.
Driscoll drove to nearby Canfield Drive to see if he could track down the unmarked cop car. On Canfield, he used his cell to call police.
“I called 911 and told them there was a suspicious car in the driveway,” Driscoll said. “Immediately, you could kind of hear them getting worked up in the background saying ‘Is anybody on the west side? Is anybody on the west side?’”
Driscoll stayed on the line with the dispatcher and drove back up the block to his house. He cursed when he realized the Taurus was gone. He was able to give police a description.
“I have bad eyes so I didn’t get a plate, but I was able to tell them light blue, looked like a Ford Taurus,” Driscoll said. “It sounded like they had eyes on him the whole time pretty much after he left my house.”
The driver stopped on Mountain Road — but then took off, leading police on a five-mile pursuit onto Route 67 and then onto Route 8 south. Police were able to puncture the suspect’s tires using stop sticks. He finally stopped around exit 19 on Route 8 south.
Driscoll said his mother’s room was ransacked and that several items of jewelry were stolen.
“All the drawers were pulled out, things were all over the floor,” he said.
In addition, Driscoll said the burglar rummaged through his bedroom.
“He didn’t take anything from my room, but he dumped my jar of coins on the floor. Maybe he was angry because I didn’t have anything?”
Fast, meanwhile, was being held on a $250,000 bond, police said.
How does Driscoll feel about being the guy who brought down the suspect in several area burglaries?
“It was just good timing,” he said.
Colin Driscoll is of no relation to the author of this article.
