One of two defendants who stole the safe that contained the life savings of an elderly Oak Bluffs man paid a visit to the Gazette on Wednesday to say that he was sorry for the crime and to correct the record on the facts in the case which he said had been portrayed inaccurately by police and in the press.

“I stole the money; it wasn’t planned, but I just want to say that I’m cooperating with the police, I gave back the safe and I gave back the money,” Daniel Ben David told the Gazette in an unannounced visit to the newspaper. “It was not right but it has been a hard winter and I have bills to pay.”

Mr. Ben David, 48 and a resident of Oak Bluffs, was arraigned in court last week and released on $1,000 bail. His partner in the crime, Stanley Johnson, is being held in jail on $20,000 bail. The two men have admitted to stealing the safe containing some $85,000 on March 19.

Mr. Ben David said he wanted to set the record straight, especially after there were inaccuracies in an early version of a story on the Gazette Web site, which have since been corrected.

He also wanted to make it known that the son of the victim, who is Mr. Ben David’s friend and who has been suspected by the victim’s family of somehow participating in the safe heist, he said, was not involved.

“I just want to make it clear that he had no knowledge of this, none at all,” Mr. Ben David said the victim’s son. “The guilt has been killing me,” he also said. “I’ve done some things I am not proud of but I’m a good man.”

A complete story about the interview with Mr. Ben David will appear in the Friday Gazette.