Wanted Man Caught Shoplifting In North Haven: Police

NORTH HAVEN, CT — A Bridgeport man who had multiple active arrest warrants is accused of shoplifting at Big Lots in North Haven on Wednesday, according to police.

Police responded around 1:30 p.m. on Jan. 15 to Big Lots on Universal Drive on the report of a theft.

While officers were responding, police said witnesses provided a description of the suspect’s vehicle.

Detectives in the area found a vehicle that matched the description, and police said a motor vehicle stop was conducted as the vehicle tried to get on I-91 South.

“Review of surveillance footage matched the suspect from the Big Lots larceny moments earlier, to a passenger inside the stopped vehicle,” police wrote in a news release. “Discarded, unpaid items from Big Lots were also located in a shopping cart right near where the suspect vehicle originally fled from.”

Shaun Costello, 42, of Bridgeport, was arrested and charged with sixth-degree larceny and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Police said Costello had two violation of probation warrants.

One was with a $125,000 bond involving a case stemming from Stamford, along with a violation of probation warrant stemming from a 2020 robbery arrest in North Haven at Home Depot, where an employee trying to stop the robbery was threatened to be stabbed with a syringe, according to police.

Costello was held in lieu of a $150,000 bond and was arraigned at Meriden Superior Court on Thursday morning, according to police.