Michael J. Dardar (via opcso.org)
A man police found hiding under a house with a secret horde of cash drawers and other possibly-stolen items has confessed to four of the business burglaries that plagued the Riverbend earlier this year, and he may be responsible for as many as a dozen, police said Thursday.
For the past month, ever since the break-ins intensified just before Mardi Gras, police had been scouring the streets around Maple, Oak, and Hampson in hopes of identifying a suspect or at least discouraging more burglaries. Early Monday morning, Michael J. Dardar, 34, was found under a house in the 800 block of South Carrollton Avenue, after extensive surveillance of the suspected hiding spot by a police task force led by Sgt. Ron Dassel.
“We’ve known he was using this location as his base camp,” Dassel said Wednesday during the weekly meeting of NOPD Second District officers. “The property is matching the description of things that were taken: cash drawers, tills, money lock boxes.”
After his arrest, Dardar told police about a second hideout undner a home in the 600 block of North Carrollton in Mid-City, where Dassel’s task force found more items, said Lt. Mike Montalbano. Investigators immediately began trying to match the evidence to the items stolen in the burglaries, and after speaking to him again Thursday, Dardar confessed to four burglaries: two at Lola Boutique and one each at Trellis Flower Shop and Angeliques, Montalbano said.
Based on the amount of property recovered, however, investigators believe Dardar is likely responsible for more of the break-ins – possibly as many as 12, Montalbano said.
“It’s just going to take time to put the pieces together,” Montalbano said.
Dardar is charged with burglary, illegal possession of stolen things, illegal carrying of burglary tools, criminal damage to property, possession of marijuana and trespassing, according to records at the Orleans Parish Jail.
His previous criminal record includes only a few minor misdemeanors, Montalbano said. Dardar told investigators he has a college degree in psychology and lost his job during the recession, and began stealing to get by afterward, Montalbano said.
