New Canaan Police on Aug. 31 arrested a 33-year-old Fairfield man by warrant after he stole a vehicle and caused a two-car crash in June 2025, court records show.
At about 7:03 a.m. on June 10, 2025 (a Tuesday), officers responded to the area of Ponus Ridge and Adams Lane, where a Jeep Wrangler could be seen “fully engulfed” in flames, its driver “fully nude and barefoot pacing next to a tree,” according to the affidavit of Officer Owen Ochs that forms the major part of an arrest warrant application signed Aug. 20 by a state Superior Court judge.
Police identified the driver, as well as the operator of a BMW that had been traveling south on Ponus Ridge when the Jeep pulled out of Adams Lane and drove head-on into his vehicle, according to the arrest warrant application.
The Jeep driver was “covered in severe burns on his arms, legs, chest and hands,” the application said. Asked what happened, the man “provided no response,” Ochs said in the affidavit, only telling an officer “I need painkillers” and “give me painkillers.”
Both drivers were transported to Norwalk Hospital by New Canaan Emergency Medical Service. The BMW driver suffered a mild concussion, whiplash and a sore back, the application said. He told police that he tried to swerve out of the Jeep’s way but could not—evidence later corroborated by the vehicle’s Event Data Recorder. Police found that the BMW sustained front-end damage and that both front airbags had been deployed.
“The airbags had blood stains on them,” the affidavit said.
The Jeep’s driver had remained in the vehicle after impact “which quickly became engulfed in flames,” the affidavit said, citing information supplied by the BMW driver during an interview. The Jeep’s driver then “exited the vehicle while on fire, removed his clothes and stepped away from the area.”
During their investigation, police came to find that the Jeep had been stolen from Norwalk. Toxicology reports from Norwalk Hospital showed that the Jeep’s driver did not test positive for any drugs or alcohol, other than a sedation medication administered by EMS during the ambulance transport. Police found that the Jeep’s driver had been arrested in the past on charges of breach of peace, threatening and DUI, among others, the application said. In speaking to the Jeep driver’s family, police learned that he “has ongoing behavioral issues” and does not consistently take prescribed medications for a mental health condition, the affidavit said. The family had taken the man’s vehicle and keys from him “due to his behavior,” it said.
Police charged the man with larceny of a motor vehicle, reckless driving and several motor-vehicle related offenses.
New Canaan Police took custody of the man at the Milford Police Department on Aug. 31 and held him on $25,000. He was scheduled to appear the same day in state Superior Court. He has not yet pleaded and remains in custody on $150,000 bond, according to Connecticut Judicial Branch records. The man now is scheduled to appear Sept. 21 in state Superior Court.