Cops: Purse thief caught after Chinese food delivery

BRIDGEPORT -- An alleged purse thief was tripped up Tuesday when Chinese food was delivered to the apartment where she was staying, police said.

A Stratford Avenue woman discovered her purse missing at about 6 p.m. and when she reported the loss of her credit card to the bank, a bank employee told her that the card had been used just minutes earlier to order food from the Lilac Restaurant on Black Rock Turnpike in Fairfield.

A few minutes after that, a delivery man from the restaurant brought food to the apartment across the hall, according to the police incident report. The victim told police that she had left her purse on a chair in her apartment earlier Tuesday afternoon. While she was talking to police, the victim said, a Fairifeld woman who had been staying in the aparmtent across the hall knocked on her door.

The visitor admitted taking the purse and using the credit card to order food, but offered to return the purse and to share the Chinese meal if the victim did not file a complaint, the police report said.

But when the victim discovered that $65 in cash was also missing, she decided to press charges.

Tim Keothammachak , 39, of Alberta Road in Fairfield, was charged with second-degree burglary and sixth-degree larceny, and held on a $25,000 bond.