New Canaan Police on July 17 arrested a 25-year-old New York man accused of stealing town residents’ mail.
On Feb. 26, 2022, Officers Kelly Coughlin and Bryan Connolly were dispatched to Hawks Hill Road on a report of a white minivan stealing mail from several mailboxes, according to an incident report written by Coughlin.
The man who reported the crime got into his own vehicle and followed the minivan to Jelliff Mill Road, informing the police department of the car’s location, according to the case report, obtained by NewCanaanite.com through a public records request.
Coughlin, heading East on Jelliff Mill Road, and Connolly, heading West, converged on the vehicle and forced it to pull over, according to the report.
There were four people in the car and, when asked, the driver said they were coming from Staten Island to go to the Bronx to pick up his son, Coughlin wrote.
Coughlin then asked the driver whether he had been on Hawks Hill Road and if he had made any deliveries at mailboxes. The driver stated that he was simply driving through the area, yet Connolly noticed a piece of mail under one of the passengers’ feet, the report said.
That mail was addressed to a Hawks Hill Road address, so the officers asked for identification from all of the passengers, according to the report.
Two of the passengers provided licenses that later proved to be suspended, and one, the 25-year-old New York man, stated he did not have identification and gave a false name, Coughlin wrote.
The four passengers were removed from the vehicle, patted down, placed in handcuffs, and put into patrol vehicles, the report said. A search of the vehicle showed additional stolen mail.
The New York man initially pleaded not guilty to counts of first-degree larceny and third-degree identity theft, but later received two additional felony charges for failure to appear in court.
On July 17, New Canaan Police went to Rikers Island to pick up the suspect and put him into police custody, where he still resides.
The suspect is being held on a $50,000 bond, and his arraignment is scheduled for Sept. 23, according to Connecticut Judicial Branch records. Norwalk-based attorney Frank Bevilacqua will represent him, the records show.
Did this really happen in 2022 and they were arrested in 2025? Only reason I ask is because I live in this neighborhood and have had some expected mail not show up, and this would give me some nice, unexpected closure.
Yes in 2022 — all of the information in the story comes from police. If you email me at editor@newcanaanite.com I can send you the full incident report.