‘Dinnertime bandit’ arraigned

STAMFORD, Conn. -- A man dubbed the “dinnertime bandit” for allegedly robbing wealthy homes -- often while residents dined -- was brought before a judge Friday for arraignment, nine years after he fled to Europe.

Alan W. Golder, 52, did not enter a plea in Stamford Superior Court and was ordered held on a $3 million bond.

Golder was extradited from Belgium on Wednesday and taken to Greenwich, where police charged him with 38 felony counts and one misdemeanor including burglary, larceny, robbery and kidnapping, stemming from 16 break-ins that occurred between September 1996 and October 1997.

Golder fled the U.S. in 1998 after police obtained a warrant for his arrest in connection with the break-ins.

The suspect in those robberies was nicknamed the “dinnertime bandit” because the burglar would strike affluent homes in the early evening, sometimes while residents were home eating dinner, and slip away unnoticed. Authorities estimate nearly $1 million in goods were taken in the Greenwich thefts.

Authorities have said Golder is also a suspect in 50 burglaries in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, totaling about $5 million in stolen jewelry.

The Greenwich burglaries occurred while Golder was out on parole for the 1978 murder of Long Island, N.Y., real estate developer Lawrence Lever. Lever was fatally shot by an accomplice of Golder during a break-in at his home. Golder served 15 years in prison and was paroled in June 1996. The Greenwich burglaries began three months later.

When Golder fled his Queens, N.Y., home in 1998, he left behind a copy of a story proposal about his life titled “Precious Metal: Confessions of a Rock ‘n’ Roll Jewel Thief.” It dealt with his life before he went to prison. Police have said they did not know how much of the story was true and that it did not contain any information that helped in the current investigation.

Segments on Golder were broadcast repeatedly on television’s “America’s Most Wanted” and “Unsolved Mysteries” after his disappearance.

Golder was arrested in Belgium on Dec. 14, 2006, and his identity was confirmed through fingerprints, authorities said. State prosecutors say Golder had been living in Belgium and Paris and had used seven aliases.