Dumpster-Diving Shoplifting Suspect Fails in Attempt to Elude Greenwich Police

A woman suspected of swiping about $150 worth of merchandise from a CVS store tried Dumpster diving to elude Greenwich Police.

It worked — but only for about an hour when a maintenance man was startled to find her inside the garbage receptacle at a nearby nursery school.

Here is how Greenwich Police say the incident on unfolded shortly after Tuesday evening.

Employees of the CVS store at 644 W. Putnam Ave. called police to report a shoplifting suspect was being chased by store managers. The woman eluded capture and a police search of the area didn’t turn up any clues.

About an hour after that incident, a custodian for the Gateway Preschool at 2 Chapel St. “called to report an odd event,” according to the police report. The custodian told police that “when he went to throw out the trash he was startled by a woman who had been sitting in the dumpster. This woman related something to the effect ‘that she was looking for a private place to urinate,’” according to the police report.

Gateway is a few blocks away from the CVS.

The officer who was assigned to the CVS theft report “was detailed to this peculiar dumpster call and he mentally linked the two incidents together.” In checking the area, the officer found the items reported stolen from CVS, stashed in another Dumpster.

The officer set up an “impromptu surveillance” of the area, police said. A short time later, a taxi arrived. The driver told the officer the company received a call from a woman requesting to be picked up in the area, however, there was no one there, according to the report.

The officer then began searching again and a short time later, the woman was found hiding in a pile of trash on Byram Terrace about 6:40 p.m.— about a block away from the preschool.

The woman, identified as Heisze Chan, 36, of Webbs Hill Road, Stamford, was arrested on charges of first-degree criminal trespass and sixth-degree larceny. Chan was released after posting a $500 bond and is scheduled to appear April 22 in state Superior Court in Stamford. According to the Connecticut Judicial Website, Chan has several convictions for larceny, criminal trespass and operating under the influence dating back to 2005.

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Photo: Heisze Chan. Credit: Greenwich Police.