New Canaan Police this month arrested an 18-year-old Ansonia man in connection with car break-ins and a stolen vehicle one night in June.
At about 7:49 a.m. on June 19 (a Thursday), officers were dispatched to a condominium complex on Route 123, Canaan Close, on a report of a 2023 Porsche Cayenne that had been broken into, according to an arrest warrant application obtained by NewCanaanite.com through a public records request.
There, police met with the owner of the mid-size SUV, who told the that it had been parked outside her unit “and when she went out to her vehicle this morning, she noticed the glove box and center console were open,” according to an arrest warrant application filed Sept. 3 by New Canaan Police Sgt. Peter Condos and signed Sept. 23 by a state Superior Court judge. He added: “She noted that she had not left her vehicle like this” on leaving it at about 9:30 p.m. the prior night. The SUV had been left unlocked with its keys inside her home.
The owner “did not notice anything missing from the front, but when she opened the trunk, she noticed her golf clubs had been stolen,” Condos said in an affidavit.
“There was no sign of forced entry on the vehicle,” the arrest warrant application said. “Her stolen golf bag was a navy blue bag with the Wee Burn Country Club emblem on it. Inside were numerous golf clubs and other items. The approximate value of the bag and the items inside is $2,500.”
Officers soon learned that three other vehicles in the same lot had been illegally entered and rummaged through, and that “a stolen motor vehicle was also found abandoned in close proximity (about one-tenth of a mile) to these incidents and in the same timeframe,” Condos said in the application. No items were reported missing from the other cars, the application said.
NCPD Officer Kelly Coughlin “noticed a hand print on the pillar of the [Porsche] as well as a few fingerprints in the front, driver’s door,” it said.
Condos and Officer Thomas Patten of the Investigative Division responded to the scene for processing and “the latent finger and palm prints were photographed, lifted and delivered to the State Forensic Laboratory for analysis,” the application said.
On Aug. 19, offices received word that the latest prints were identified as belonging to the teenager, who already had an extensive criminal record. The subject of a protective order issued in July, he had been arrested by Branford Police in December 2023 for criminal attempt to commit larceny of a motor vehicle, possession of burglary tools and other charges. He also had pending criminal charges for interfering with an officer and other criminal charges this year, Condos said.
New Canaan Police served the warrant for third-degree larceny on Dec. 11 in state Superior Court in Stamford. The man remained in custody of the court and was issued $20,000 bond on the felony charge. According to Connecticut Judicial Branch records, the man is now being held on $50,000 bond and scheduled for arraignment Feb. 6.
