Warrant: Man, 49, Charged in Connection with More Than One Dozen Residential Burglaries in New Canaan

Police on Aug. 28 arrested a 49-year-old Brooklyn, N.Y. man by warrant on dozens of felony charges following a lengthy investigation into multiple residential burglaries in New Canaan starting last year, including one on Ponus Ridge where about $122,000 in jewelry and watches was stolen.

Authorities used footage from Flock automated license plate readers, residential security cameras, cell phone data and—in at least one case—shoe prints left in the snow to identify the man as well as another suspect, and to connect them to more than one dozen burglaries in town, many of them second-floor break-ins, according to a 17-page affidavit from New Canaan Police Officer (now Sergeant) Kelly Coughlin that forms the major part of an arrest warrant application signed Aug. 3 by state Superior Court judge Mary Elizabeth Reid.

New Canaan began seeing second-floor entry in residential burglaries in July of 2025, with a burglary on North Wilton Road, then 11 more through the end of the year, Coughlin wrote in the affidavit. Those included multiple instances in October where tens of thousands of dollars in cash, jewelry and other items were stolen from New Canaan homes, including on Ferris Hill Road ($66,400 in watches and jewelry), Rosebrook Road ($88,000 in foreign currency, jewelry, handbags and about 20 ounces of gold) and two on Dan’s Highway ($40,500 in jewelry and cash, and $38,250 in jewelry and watches). 

Following two burglaries in New Canaan on Dec. 13—and several similar crimes in Greenwich during the same period of months—police developed a suspect vehicle, a Mercedes G Wagon that had been rented from an Enterprise in Southampton, N.Y. by the Brooklyn man. The same SUV had been captured “numerous times” by license plate readers in New Canaan between Dec. 11 and 13, the arrest warrant application said. 

Greenwich Police also discovered that the vehicle had been to a Home Depot in Port Chester, N.Y. three times, including on Dec. 13, and “[t]wo males were seen on security footage purchasing crowbars, long screwdrivers, flashlights and batteries across their visits,” Coughlin wrote in the affidavit.

“These items are commonly used in burglaries,” Coughlin wrote.

On Jan. 19, police found a Nike sneaker print in the snow outside a Rosebrook Road home that had been burglarized that day—a shoe that could be seen worn by the Brooklyn man’s criminal partner during a Home Depot visit (for screwdrivers, gloves and batteries) the very same day, the application said. Security camera footage from a neighboring home also captured images of two men believed to be the same pair.

The Brooklyn man’s phone, obtained by Greenwich Police amid the agency’s own arrest in January, also could be tracked to the area of Brushy Ridge on Jan. 19, the application said.

Using LPR hits, camera footage and cell phone data, police identified the pair’s system as renting a high-end vehicle out-of-state, including multiple times in Southampton, then traveling up to Connecticut, sometimes picking up tools at a Home Depot, and burglarizing homes in New Canaan and Greenwich as well as neighboring towns such as Wilton.

In using information supplied by Flock devices in New Canaan, Coughlin narrowed the department’s searches in order to home in on the suspects’ vehicle. For example, at about 10:42 p.m. on Jan. 23, officers were dispatched to an Oenoke Ridge home on an alarm call for a playroom motion activation. An audible alarm could be heard at the house, where a rear glass door had been shattered and a ladder had been left leaning against the home at a broken second-floor window (a ladder later found to have been stolen from a detached garage), Coughlin said in her affidavit.

“The interior of the residence appeared to have been untouched and it was possible the alarm scared the intruder(s) off,” the arrest warrant application said. “A K9 tracked shoe prints in the snow leading to a private drive area to the south of the property where there were also fresh tire marks.”

Coughlin used Flock license plate reader data to try and identify a suspect vehicle, limiting the search for “any vehicles captured in New Canaan between 1800 hours and 2315 hours” and “limited the search to just vehicles with New York or New Jersey plates,” the application said. 

Coughlin continued: “The affiant also knew that the M.O. of the burglaries in Greenwich and New Canaan involving the G-Wagan involved the vehicle coming to the day prior and two days prior to the burglaries. The M.O. also involved the vehicle driving through New Canaan for several hours on the dates of the two burglaries resulting in multiple LPR hits. The affiant looked for vehicles in this LPR search that not only had a New York or New Jersey license plate, but that also hit LPRs multiple times in New Canaan on the date of the burglary (1/23/26) and were identified as a high end vehicle (e. Mercedes, Land Rover, BMW, etc.).”

One of the registrations checked was a New York license plate that police traced to a 2025 Land Range Rover rented out of the  Enterprise in Southampton that came back, ultimately, to the Brooklyn man’s partner in crime.

Police connected LPR and cell phone data to the two men in several more burglaries, including on Carter Street, Rosebrook Road, Lost District Drive, Canoe Hill Road and Weed Street.

Greenwich Police in their January arrest charged the Brooklyn man with five counts of first-degree larceny, six counts of third-degree burglary, two counts of first-degree criminal mischief and four counts of second-degree criminal mischief, 

New Canaan Police arrested him in March and charged him with one count of first-degree larceny and two counts of third-degree burglary, and through the warrant arrested him Aug. 28 on 11 counts of third-degree burglary, 12 counts of conspiracy to commit third-degree burglary, four counts of first-degree larceny, five counts of conspiracy to commit first-degree larceny, one count of second-degree larceny, two counts of sixth-degree larceny and two counts of conspiracy to commit sixth-degree larceny. 

The Brooklyn man continues to be held on $150,000 bond and has not yet pleaded, according to Connecticut Judicial Branch records. He now is scheduled for arraignment Nov. 2 and is represented by Bridgeport-based Cohen & Wolf PC.