Crime & Safety

Police: Bank Robbery Suspect Has Ties to Burglaries

Bank robbery suspect has eluded warrant arrests in connection with area burglaries.

For about three weeks, police have been on the lookout for Shane Parsons.

Wanted in connection with at least eight burglaries committed in March through May in Newtown, Brookfield and possibly Bridgewater, the 36-year-old, who usually works with a partner, also had brushes with the law in Westchester County, according to court documents.

But no matter how prolific Parsons was at breaking into houses – using his elbow, protected by a heavy hooded sweatshirt, to break the glass and stick his hand in to open the doorknob from the inside – police had trouble tracking him down and executing arrest warrants on him, according to officials and court records.

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He publicly re-emerged in town on Thursday but this time, he had moved from being a suspect in house burglaries to a bank robbery, according to Newtown police who identified Parsons as a suspect in the 11:30 a.m. heist of the Newtown Savings Bank at 39 Main St.

As of the evening, authorities had not announced whether they had been able to track Parsons down.

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The Newtown bank robbery apparently wasn't his first bank of the day, said police who also identified him as a suspect in an earlier 10 a.m. robbery of the Webster Bank in Waterbury.

In fact, the Newtown robbery may have been his third one of the week, according to a published report that quoted Waterbury police as saying Parsons may be connected to the robbery of the Naugatuck Savings Bank in Naugatuck on Tuesday.

Parsons, who used to live in town but is now estranged from his family, has a drug problem, specifically a heroin addiction, according to court documents that include statements from two people now in custody in connection with burglarizing six Newtown homes.

respectively on June 1 and May 24 and both remain in custody.

Both are accused of burglarizing homes at different times with Parsons, as well as stealing items from Durkin's mother and together pawning off the items, according to court documents.

In statements to police, according to the court files, they described helping Parsons with the burglaries by driving him to the homes, and in the case of Bergeron, also using his identification to help sell the items. Parsons only has an identification card from the Department of Motor Vehicles and no driver's license, according to court files.

Durkin and Bergeron said their addiction to drugs drove them to commit the crimes. Durkin said she used two to three bundles of heroin a day. Bergeron vowed to kick his addiction.

"I would have never been involved with Shane if I weren't addicted to drugs," Bergeron said in his statements included in court documents. "If I was sober I would have never even thought about doing any of this."

Durkin additionally has been charged in a May 5 burglary of a Whisconier Road home in Brookfield, police there said in court documents that also lists Parsons as a suspect.

The occupants of that Brookfield home said Parsons was a friend of a prior roommate, according to the arrest warrant. In their investigation, Brookfield police appeared to have zeroed in on Durkin after learning that state police had identified her as a suspect in an April 29 burglary in Bridgewater.

She was seen driving away in a car with a male passenger, according to court documents. Brookfield police said it was possible the male passenger was Parsons.


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