Police Impound Van Used in Laptop Computer Robbery

Police Monday night recovered the van used in a robbery outside McDonald's on the Post Road traffic circle in Fairfield in which a laptop computer was stolen.

The Dodge Caravan was recovered by South Benson Marina after three men involved in the robbery left it there and got into a white, older-model Jeep Cherokee, police said. The van had license plates that belonged to another van that was reported stolen from Super Stop & Shop on Villa Avenue in Fairfield Sunday night, police said.

Police said the manager at McDonald's, a 37-year-old Norwalk man, was ambushed by two unidentified men wearing blue jeans and hooded sweatshirts about 6:37 p.m. Monday as he walked to his car in the McDonald's parking lot.

One of the assailants swung a tire iron at the head of the manager but the manager ducked and the tire iron didn't hit him, police said. The assailant then shoved the manager to the ground, and the other assailant stole a laptop computer valued at $1,000 from the manager's Toyota Corrola, police said.

The two unidentified men then fled in the Dodge Caravan, which was driven by a third man, police said.

A resident who lives near South Benson Marina in Fairfield reported to police about 8:33 p.m. that a van, which turned out to be the vehicle used in the robbery, was parked in the middle of the street, near South Benson Road and Riverside Drive, police said. The van was impounded at the Fairfield Police Department this morning.

The two assailants were described by police as being between 17 and 25 years old and from five feet, four inches to five feet, six inches tall. Each assailant, one black, the other Hispanic, was dressed in blue jeans and a dark-hooded sweatshirt, police said.

Police said it wasn't clear why the men wanted the laptop and if it contained personal information on McDonald's employees that could be used to commit identity theft.