The number of vehicles stolen from New Canaan more than doubled in 2024, officials say.
Stolen vehicles increased from 17 to 40 year-over-year, according to Police Chief John DiFederico. The figures represent a 135% rise.
“It was not a good year for vehicles,” he told members of the Police Commission during their regular meeting, held Wednesday night at Town Hall and via videoconference.
The nature of the thefts appears to be changing in a dangerous way, DiFederico said. Specifically, some of the stolen vehicles appeared to be “targeted” he said.
“Some people … were followed home because they were driving a particular vehicle,” he said. “I haven’t had one like that in a couple of months. But that was a little scary trend that was happening, especially Range Rovers were highly targeted, highly sought-after vehicles. And some people, it seems as though they were followed home.”
The stolen vehicles at times are used in other crimes, trashed or stripped-down, officials said.
DiFederico said: “So it’s not the days where people recover their car and it’s in as good a shape as when they parked them in their driveway. Sometimes they do get trashed, but also it’s inviting more bold and aggressive thieves to come in during the daytime, confront people in the driveways, enter into the garages, enter into the house.”
The chief also noted that nearly all of the stolen vehicles result from people leaving their keys in unlocked cars.
“That’s how it’s happening 99% of the time,” he said.
The comments came during a discussion of year-end crime statistics.
According to data obtained through a public records request, year-over-year thefts from motor vehicles also increased year-over-year, from 35 to 45, a 29% rise.
DiFederico and the Commission spotlighted other notable statistics—for example, reports of family disputes decreased from 83 to 49 year-over-year. Reports of school bus violations also decreased, from 138 in 2023 to 70 in 2024.
“I’m not sure if that’s a lack of reporting or compliance is increasing,” DiFederico said. “We’ll keep an eye on that, certainly. With our SROs [school resource officers] at the schools, that might help report any of those incidents if and when they occur. I know there was a change in leadership at the bus company, so I’m not sure if that had something to do with it.”
Commissioner Jim McLaughlin asked the chief whether the county is seeing a similar upward trend (probably), why a specific make would be targeted (some cars are more valuable and get sold overseas) and how many vehicles are dumped versus sold (most are recovered in larger cities).
Asked whether “targeted” car model thefts are becoming more frequent, DiFederico said yes.
“That’s trending that way,” he said. “So what once was just an overnight ‘Hey, my car is gone in the morning’ is now becoming ‘Hey, I’m watching somebody steal my car from my garage right now and it’s four o’clock in the afternoon,’ which is very scary. It’s something that we really need to work on as a community. Securing our vehicles and taking the keys inside and securing garages and locking doors. It’s a kind of a holistic approach.”