Man charged in South Windsor snowblower theft

Journal Inquirer, Manchester, Conn.

Feb. 16—SOUTH WINDSOR — A man who attempted to steal snowblowers from the Lowe's store in November and had to be rescued after falling off a retaining wall has been charged in the incident, police said.

The man, Delroy Brooks, 54, of Windsor, was charged Friday with third-degree larceny and conspiracy to commit that crime, third-degree trespass and conspiracy to commit that crime, second-degree criminal mischief, and interfering with an officer.

He was released on $10,000 bond and is to appear in Vernon Superior Court on March 24.

Police said they received a call Nov. 14 about suspicious activity at the Lowe's on Buckland Hills Drive. The caller said they saw a person wheeling a snowblower in the parking lot around 11 p.m.

When officers arrived, they found two men, one of them Brooks, who fled and ended up falling off a 20-foot tall retaining wall, police said.

Brooks was found by an East Hartford police tracking dog and rescued from the bottom of the wall by the South Windsor Fire Department.

The other man, who hasn't been arrested yet, was found in the process of loading the snowblowers into a vehicle, police said. A warrant is pending for his arrest.

Surveillance footage from Lowe's shows that Brooks and the other man cut the exterior fence behind which the snowblowers were stored and attempted to take four of them, police said.

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