So, You Want to Be a Police Officer? Could You Be This Patient?

Herding cats would have been easier than what's portrayed this account (an accusation not proven in court) by a Norwalk police officer on the circumstances that led to the arrest Tuesday of Maria Santiago, 50, a resident of the Open Door Homeless Shelter on Merritt Street:

The officer was called to the scene at 7:22 p.m. in front of Superior Supermarket at 42 Woodward St., where management had been trying to stop people from loitering and drinking around the outside of the store.


When the officer arrived, a clerk pointed to numerous no-loitering and no-trespassing signs outside the store. Then the clerk pointed to a man he said was loitering. A female near him was loitering as well, the officer saw.

The man initially refused to leave when the officer told him he would have to. The officer then told the man he would be issued an infraction ticket for trespassing. Then the man gathered his belongings and left.

The woman at that point walked across the street and sat on a wall. 

Under a "No trespassing" sign.

The police officer noticed she was swaying back and forth and smelled of alcohol.

The officer asked the woman why she wouldn't leave. She said nothing. 

He asked her for her name and date of birth. She said nothing.

The officer told her to stand by, then he walked over to his car to write up an infraction ticket.

Then she stood in the middle of the street. Cars were passed by and honked their horns at her.

She walked down the road, staggering in and out of the travel parts of the roadway, ignoring the officer.

He presented her with an infraction ticket for trespass and unsafe use of a roadway. She refused to take the ticket.

She slapped the piece of paper from his hand, and it fell to the street. The officer told her to pick it up, and he stopped traffic to let her do it safely.

She did pick it up and stuffed it in her pants. She walked down the sidewalk.

She then walked over to the same spot on the sidewalk where she was sitting when he first decided to give her the ticket. She picked up a beer from the sidewalk and drank from it.

She walked on the street again. The officer told her to leave. She walked on the roadway again. She began yelling in Spanish.

The officer told her five or six more times to get off the roadway.

She stood on the double yellow line.

At this point, the officer arrested her and brought her to headquarters. She was charged with drinking from an open container of alcohol in public, walking into the path of vehicles traveling on the road, improperly using a road as a pedestrian, littering and interfering with an officer.

She was held on a $500 bond pending an appearance on Sept. 10 in state Superior Court in Norwalk.