Fairfield Hills

Security Guard Arrested

For Alleged Fuel Theft

By Andrew Gorosko

Town police arrested a security guard at Fairfield Hills on August 6, after investigating a complaint that the man had allegedly stolen some town fuel for use in his personal vehicle.

Police said they charged Richard R. Gagne, 20, of New Britain with sixth-degree larceny in connection with the incident. Gagne was released from custody on $100 bail for an August 19 arraignment on the charge in Danbury Superior Court, police said.

Sixth-degree larceny is a misdemeanor which pertains to the theft of items worth less than $500.

US Security Associates, for whom Gagne works, has suspended Gagne from work without pay pending the results of the court case, police said.

Police said that at about 2:58 pm on August 6, they received a complaint from a Newtown resident concerning suspicious activity at the Fairfield Hills campus.

The complainant told police that a campus security guard had removed a five-gallon bottle from inside the town’s Ford Crown Victoria security sedan at the campus and then poured the contents of that bottle into the fuel tank of his personal vehicle, police said.

The activity alleged occurred adjacent to the small brick building at the main entrance to Fairfield Hills where the campus security office is located, police said.

Police said the complainant confronted the security guard and had a brief discussion with him, after which the complainant called police to report the matter as suspicious.

An investigation resulted in a confession from Gagne that he stolen the fuel from the public works department that day, police said.

Police said they appreciate the complainant’s observing and then promptly reporting the security guard’s suspicious activity.