New Canaan police arrested a pair of nonresidents who switched seats in a car after a minor motor vehicle accident downtown, then lied about it.
According to police, the man—32 years old, from Eric Street in Bridgeport—was at the wheel of a 2000 Audi just before 5 p.m. on Feb. 4 when it collided in the parking lot at the Mobil station with another car, according to a police report. That vehicle, a 2003 Ford, was being driven by an 18-year-old New Canaan man, police Sgt. Carol Ogrinc said.
But when police arrived on scene to investigate the accident (which saw the Audi damaged enough that it had to be towed away), a 33-year-old woman from Ely Avenue in Norwalk who had been a passenger in the Audi, told an officer that she had been at the wheel, according to Ogrinc.
Police made no arrests at first, Ogrinc said. But that night, the New Canaan teen told his own parents what had really happened, and the family contacted police, Ogrinc said.
That prompted police to check surveillance video, and they saw that in fact, the man had been driving the car at the time of the accident.
He was charged the next day with interfering with an officer and driving with a suspended license. The woman was charged with interfering.
Each was released after promising to appear Feb. 14 in state Superior Court in Norwalk.
—Michael Dinan