TRUMBULL — Police say a local man has been charged after stealing several thousand dollars of town tax funds from a bag that was accidentally dropped outside a bank in May.
Police identified the man as Robert Withington, 57, of Placid Street in Trumbull, who turned himself in on Friday.
Withington was charged with third-degree larceny and was released on a promise to appear Sept. 5 in state Superior Court in Bridgeport.
“Since it’s a pending criminal matter, which hasn’t been adjudicated at this point, I can’t comment any further,” Trumbull First Selectman Vicki Tesoro said in a phone call Saturday. “I will say that the Trumbull Police Department did a great job solving the case.”
Trumbull police detectives initiated the investigation when they were notified an employee of the town’s tax collector’s office was unable to locate the bank deposit bag while making a delivery to the bank on May 30, Lt. Brian Weir said Saturday.
The employee discovered the bag was missing when they arrived at the bank branch on Quality Street that day, Weir said. The deposit bag was marked with the bank’s insignia and contained numerous documents that identified the owner of the contents as the Town of Trumbull, Weir said.
Trumbull police detectives conducted numerous interviews, obtained search warrants and reviewed surveillance videos from local businesses over the course of several months and learned that the bank deposit bag was accidentally dropped on the ground outside the bank and was then picked up by Withington, Weir said.
Detectives eventually interviewed Withington who admitted he was at the bank May 30 and had taken the bag that contained nearly $5,000 in cash, Weir said. He kept the bag, believing that he had no obligation to return it to its rightful owner, Weir said.
When reached on Saturday evening, Withington said he felt he did nothing wrong.
“I found it. There was no one there. I didn’t steal it. I didn’t take it from anybody,” Withington said in a phone interview.
“I come out of the bank. I’m just getting over COVID. I had my mask on. When I walked outside, there was no one out there, but there was a police officer parked to the left. He had sunglasses, looking at his cellphone. I just looked down, I was like, ‘there’s something there.’ So I just picked it up under my arm like no biggie and just walked back to my car,” said Withington, who said he owns his own business.
Read More: Trumbull man stole town’s tax money after finding bank bag