Police: Man, woman charged in street robberies

STAMFORD — A Stamford man, 29, and a 27-yearold New Canaan woman have been charged with a string of armed sidewalk robberies in the city

Police said camera footage taken by a Tesla parked near one of the robberies helped them crack the case.

After being charged with one of the alleged hold-ups in early September, Francisco Olivencia, of Pacific Street, was charged with three others last week, for a total of four, and is currently being held at the Bridgeport Correctional Center, unable to post a $1 million bond.

As well as four first-degree robbery charges, he is charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm, conspiracy to commit robbery and attempted firstdegree assault, reckless endangerment and illegal discharge of a firearm.

Hadiya Bowles, of Lakeview Avenue in New Canaan, turned herself over to Stamford police Tuesday morning and was charged with three counts of firstdegree robbery. The mother of five is accused of helping Olivencia commit three sidewalk hold-ups in Stamford at the end of August and beginning of September.

Bowles was brought to the Stamford courthouse later Tuesday morning for arraignment.

A judge refused to drop a $750,000 court-set bond and she was transported to the York Correctional Institution in Niantic.

Her attorney Matthew Maddox declined comment on the allegations.

Police on Aug. 31 at 10 p.m. were called to East Walnut Street in Stamford’s South End, where they were told by a man that a skinny man had jumped out of a silver SUV and robbed him at gunpoint.

A few minutes later police were called around the corner to Woodland Place, where two people said they had just been robbed by a skinny man with a gun, wearing the same clothes that the alleged robber in the first incident was described as wearing.

Police said an important element in their investigation was discovering that a Tesla parked on Woodland Place had its cameras activated, even though the car was turned off. Pictures from the car showed the suspect as well as images of the the license plate on a silver Ford Explorer that police determined was involved in the robbery, police said. When police ran the plate, they found that the 2011 silver Explorer was registered to Bowles, her arrest warrant states.