A pair who robbed a well-known elderly Oak Bluffs man of his life savings last month have been arrested, although Oak Bluffs police said they have not recovered all the money. Police said $85,000 was stolen from the man, whose name is being withheld, but only about $37,000 has been recovered.

The robbery occurred on March 19, when the man reported to police that his safe had been stolen from his home while he was off-Island visiting family for two days. It contained his life savings of about $85,000, police said.

A complicated series of events that followed ultimately resulted in the arrest of Daniel A. Ben David, 48, and Stanley Johnson, 50, both of Oak Bluffs. The arrests took place on April 8. Both men have been charged with burglary, breaking and entering in the nighttime with intent to commit a felony, larceny over $250, breaking into a depository, malicious destruction of property over $250 and conspiracy. Both men have been arraigned in Edgartown district court; Mr. Ben David was released on $1,000 bail and Mr. Johnson is being held on $20,000 bail.

Both men admitted to the crime, police said. The intricacies of the case include a failed polygraph test by Mr. Ben David that preceded his confession and a police chase after Mr. Johnson failed to return from an overnight good-faith trip to New York allegedly to collect some of the stolen money. And there was a drug bust along the way; following the arrest of Mr. Johnson and during a search of his house, Stacy L. Strelecki, 37, of Edgartown was charged with possession of cocaine. Mr. Johnson also has been charged with cocaine possession.

Oak Bluffs, Mashpee, Edgartown and state police all were involved. An investigation is ongoing.

Meanwhile, after network television stations picked up the story, one of the two defendants who stole the safe paid a visit to the Gazette on Wednesday to say that he was sorry for the crime and to set the record straight on the facts in the case.

“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 described in detail the night of the safe heist and said among other things that he was under the influence of the prescription drug Xanax. “I had taken a Xanax and we were sitting around and this idea came up [to steal the money from the Oak Bluffs man who was known to the defendants],” he said. He continued: “We didn’t know there was a safe, we thought it was in shoeboxes . . . the next day I woke up and said, what the hell did we do?” Mr. Ben David said. He said he agreed to the polygraph test with police because he was overwhelmed by guilt.

“The guilt was killing me and I felt bad. I needed to set things right,” he said. “I’ve done some things I am not proud of but I’m a good man.”

And finally, he said he especially 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, was not involved.

“I just want to make it clear that he had no knowledge of this, none at all,” Mr. Ben David said of the victim’s son.