Cops: Teen charged with New Canaan car thefts

NEW CANAAN — Police said they charged an 18year-old Thursday as the main suspect in some car thefts from the summer.

On July 2, New Canaan police found an abandoned purple Dodge Challenger found near New Canaan High School. It had been crashed after being stolen from a Thayer Pond Road residence earlier that day, police said.

Police said evidence collected from inside the vehicle connected 18-year-old Charles Wood Wright to the theft. Around a week later, Wright was subsequently arrested for a different vehicle theft and crash in New Canaan. Police then interviewed Wright about his role in the Dodge Challenger theft and obtained an arrest warrant on those charges, police said.

Early Thursday morning, police said an officer on patrol observed an occupied vehicle in the East School parking lot and identified Wright as the operator. Based on the previous active arrest warrant, Wright was taken into custody, police said.

Wright is being charged with larceny in the first degree and property damage, with a court date set for Thursday.