Listen: Recording Of Old Saybrook Police Hunting Road Sign Thief

OLD SAYBROOK, CT —A resident took pictures of a "kid" in a silver or light blue Honda stealing the Great Hammock Road sign on Oct. 10 and forwarded those pictures to Old Saybrook police.

That Saturday, police landed on a suspect and four officers, including the police chief, questioned CJ Roy and were prepared to search the cottage where he, his mother and sister live when not in Maine.

CJ Roy, who has Down syndrome, does not drive.

After a near 45-minute interrogation that frightened CJ, police left and his sister Rebecca took to Facebook to blast police for their tactics used while questioning her intellectually disabled brother. Her Facebook post went viral. Patch followed the story and has several times asked police to comment without success.

Roy said her brother "cannot read well" and "is not capable of moving deftly enough to steal a street sign, nor does he have any motive to do so."

Roy and her mother told police, who soon numbered from one to four, that CJ has Down syndrome and cannot drive and was incapable of what police were alleging he'd done.

"My mother expressed that CJ may be nervous when he saw them as he's never been questioned by the police. But, we respect the authority of the police and wanted to comply with their request, so we went to call him outside. "

Roy said that police interrogated her brother considering him to be the suspected street sign thief.

"It became apparent that my brother was a suspect for no other reason than that my car matched a blurry photo a witness had taken," Roy wrote adding that the officer "without any recourse or reason to do so, said to my mentally handicapped brother, 'Buddy, tell us what you did with the sign.'"

Roy said Spera said, "Just give us the sign back and we'll be on our way." And, she said Spera told her: "How many Honda CR-Vs do you think are driving around Old Saybrook with Maine plates?"

Now, Patch has obtained a public safety recording of what happened that day leading up to police rolling up on the Roy family.

In the recording about the stolen street sign, it's made clear at least twice that the silver or "very very light blue" car believed to be a Honda CRV "definitely" had Rhode Island license plates.

"Looks like a silver Honda CRV, definitely Rhode Island plates," the dispatcher beings on the archived recording. Seconds later, the dispatcher repeats: "Definitely Rhode Island plates."

Patch emailed Spera to ask why police landed on a car with Maine plates when officers were looking for one with RI plates. He did not respond.

Police check 'every side street' for the street sign thief

A number of police can be heard cruising "every side street" looking for the car. They note seeing Florida plates, Connecticut plates and a Massachusetts plate. They then begin running tag numbers. And share a blurry image of the suspect car and continue searching.

Then they see a Maine plate, Rebecca Roy's Honda.

Police say, "It matches the photo ...if that's not the car I'd be very shocked."

Another officer says, "Yeah it's the car. Everything matches the description. Why they don't want to be honest about it, I don't know. Who knows where the sign actually is."

Police say that there was no description of the "kid" seen taking the road sign. The person who took pictures provided to police was "too focused" on taking images to be able to describe the person, police can be heard saying, "or even know what the kid looked like."

Officers say they'll "hunker down" on side streets before approaching the Roy cottage, the police audio broadcasted.

Hear the full broadcast here:

An email to Spera for comment was not retuned.

Patch filed a Freedom of Information Act request for all reports, correspondence and officer-worn body camera footage of the questioning of Roy.

Spera responded that he would not be fulfilling that request.

"The Department has deemed the matter you have inquired about an uncollaborated allegation. Therefor the Department will not be releasing the records you seek in accordance with Connecticut General Statute, 1-210(3)(H)."