A high-speed car chase that started at Walgreens in downtown New Canaan on Sunday afternoon ended with the arrest of a 21-year-old Bronx, N.Y. man who fled on foot across the state line into Pound Ridge after crashing his BMW.
The driver was charged with identity theft, third-degree forgery, three counts of illegal use of credit cards, first-degree reckless endangerment and six counts of credit card theft.
The chase started after a worker at the store at Walgreens around 3:15 p.m. phoned police to report that a customer had purchased several gift cards using what the employee suspected to be stolen credit cards, according to Sgt. Peter Condos of the New Canaan Police Department.
Arriving at the Pine Street pharmacy, an officer saw the store clerk running out of the Walgreens and pointing up the street where a black BMW was heading toward Grove, according to a police report.
The BMW driver hopped the curb in front of Zumbach’s to get around cars queued up at the stop sign there, forcing pedestrians to jump out of the way, then swung to the right on Grove, driving into the oncoming traffic lane there, passing cars with police in pursuit, the report said. He then turned left onto Elm Street and passed cars by swinging into the oncoming traffic lane there, the report said.
The driver turned right onto Weed and led police on a chase onto West and Greenley Roads, losing them for a time and traveling all the way up Ponus Ridge to Trinity Pass Road, where they found him again.
Stamford Police soon were engaging in the pursuit, with K-9 units, Condos said, and the motorist turned west toward Stamford and lost police again—until reports emerged that he’d crashed his car in the woods in Stamford, the airbag deploying.
He was spotted running up a hill in the snow around 99 Black Rock Road in Stamford—a property that backs up to the state line—and pursued by an officer who lost him after a half-mile chase.
At about 4:45 p.m., some 90 minutes after the initial call to police, New York State Police contacted New Canaan Police to say the suspect was in custody about one mile away, in Pound Ridge.
The 21-year-old told police at first that he had been the passenger in the car, then said he in fact had been in the Walgreens, used stolen credit cards to purchase the gift cards, and had been driving the BMW.
A slew of motor vehicle charges, including engaging in pursuit, have not yet been filed but are likely, officials say.
The suspect was released on $10,000 bond and scheduled to appear April 10 in state Superior Court in Norwalk.