New Canaan Police on Aug. 23 arrested a 28-year-old Norwalk man by warrant after surveillance video and cellphone data showed that he’d stolen a backpack from the outdoor track at New Canaan High School in June, according to court records.
Reported stolen at about 2:38 p.m. on June 8 (a Monday), the Hurley-brand backpack had inside it a Macbook Pro laptop (worth about $1,000), Texas Instruments graphing calculator ($175) and Apple Air pods, among other items, according to an affidavit filed by New Canaan Police Officer Roy Adams that forms the major part of an arrest warrant application signed Aug. 19 by state Superior Court judge John Blawie.
The victim “was jogging on the outdoor track located in front of New Canaan High School between 1330 and 1430 hours,” according to Adams’s affidavit, obtained by NewCanaanite.com. “He placed his backpack up against a fence that is located just above the track. When he finished running, he noticed that his backpack was gone.”
The victim was able to track the suspect via the Air pods, which “pinged” near McMahon Ford and Walmart in Norwalk, the arrest warrant application said. He and a relative traveled to Walmart because the signal “appeared to be stationary for approximately 20 minutes,” it said. The backpack was there, “abandoned by the suspect in the parking lot,” and the laptop and calculator were both missing, it said.
Video footage at NCHS showed “an individual running away from the track with a backpack in his hand at 1403 hours,” Adams said in the affidavit. Police collected the license plate of the black 2022 VW Tiguan that the suspect drove to NCHS and parked in the “senior lot,” it said. It came back to the Norwalk man and a street address directly across the street from McMahon Ford, the affidavit said.
Police also found that a northbound Flock camera got a hit on the vehicle at about 12:38 p.m. on the day in question at South Avenue and Gerdes Road, that a second Flock camera at White Oak Shade and Farm Roads got a hit at 2:10 p.m. and that a third camera “hit” occurred in Norwalk near Hotel Zero on Main Avenue at 2:53 p.m.—about 1.6 miles up the road from the Walmart, the arrest warrant application said.
Adams obtained the suspect’s home number and called him at 8:14 a.m. on June 13, asking “if he was at New Canaan High School at any time on June 8,” the application said. “He stated no. He stated that he was in town most recently on Sunday (6/7/26) in Waveny Park. I asked [the suspect] if he was operating his vehicle on 6/8/26. He stated that several family members use the car and he would have to ask them and get back to me. As of 8/4/26, [the suspect] has not told me who was operating the suspect vehicle that is registered to him.”
Adams then obtained a search warrant for the suspect’s T-Mobile cellphone data which showed his device interacting with a cell tower inside Waveny at 12:37 p.m. on June 8, the arrest warrant application said, and a later interaction in New Canaan at 1:58 p.m. It then pinged about 1.5 miles from the Walmart 2:18 p.m., the affidavit said.
The man turned himself in to police at 10 p.m. on Aug. 23 on a charge of fourth-degree larceny, a misdemeanor for thefts of more than $1,000 (but less than $2,000). He was released on $10,000 bond. The man remains out on that bond, and one condition of his release is to “stay away from New Canaan High School,” according to the arrest warrant. He has not yet pleaded and now is scheduled for arraignment Nov. 2, according to Connecticut Judicial Branch records.