Sam Gurwitt Photo
Lauren Garrett announcing her candidacy surrounded by family and supporters.
A Hamden mayoral candidate spent Saturday afternoon knocking on doors — and then Saturday night trying to track down a stolen car. Her own car.
The candidate, Lauren Garrett, who’s challenging incumbent Mayor Curt Leng in a Sept. 10 primary, said she met her husband and two sons at Sushi Palace on Dixwell Avenue for dinner after she spent the day on the campaign trail. She and her husband each drove their own Teslas to the restaurant.
Two versions of what happened next differ in parts, especially in tone: Garrett’s version, and the police department’s version. Garrett called the police version a “political stunt.” The police said they based their version on an officer’s report as well as a 911 recording.
Garrett’s Version
First, Garrett’s version.
When she and her family finished dinner, Garrett said, they came outside around 9 p.m. — to discover one of the Teslas missing.
Garrett said she called a cop she knows, John Sullivan, who informed her the car had not been towed. Then, she said, she called police dispatch to report a theft.
Meanwhile, she was tracking the whereabouts of the stolen car through a phone app. She said the family piled into the other Tesla. Her husband Dan took the wheel; she stayed on the phone with the police to update them on the car’s whereabouts.
“We could see the speed and location on the app. The car was driving around 30, 35. We could see the location,” Garrett said.
At one point the family was in the northbound left lane on Dixwell Avenue when she saw the stolen car at the same intersection, heading south.
She said her husband Dan “drove kind of alongside the car and said, ‘Hey.’”
“The kid” behind the wheel “looked over and sped off,” Garrett said. In the end, he “tapped” their Tesla with the stolen Tesla, then continued driving away.
Garrett said her husband pulled into a gas station. “We were never pursuing” the stolen car themselves, she maintained.
On her phone app, she noticed that the stolen car had remained stationery “for several minutes” at the intersection of Fourth and Warren streets. She said she told that to the police dispatcher.
She said the family headed over to the car. They found a policewoman there, shining a light into the car.
“Hey, that’s our car. Someone stole it,” Garrett said the family told the officer, who wrote up a report. The family retrieved the car.
Neither car sustained much damage beyond a scratch, Garrett said. She said she was fine with how the police handled the incident.
“Like a lot of other Hamden people, I was the victim of a crime,” Garrett said.
The Police Version
Acting Hamden Police Chief John Cappiello.
The police version, laid out in a press release issued late Monday afternoon by Capt. Ronald Smith, repeats numerous details that match Garrett’s. It does not name the Garretts.
Discrepancy #1: It does posit that the car had “not yet been reported stolen” when Officer Christina Giori responded to Warren Street and found the abandoned Tesla. Although the report does say that officers had been “advised” that a “victim’s stolen Tesla sedan was being ‘tracked’ in the vicinity of Warrent Street.”
The press release notes the ages of the Garretts’ children, 7 and 12 years old.
Discrepancy #2: Garrett’s husband’s alleged actions. Capt. Smith writes in the release: “‘After driving around’ their app received a ‘ping’ in the area of Dixwell Avenue and Circular Avenue. Her husband, who was operating their second vehicle, observed their stolen vehicle parked at a red control signal on Dixwell Avenue at Putnam Avenue. Her husband parked next to the stolen vehicle and began yelling at the suspect. He subsequently eluded them, not before striking their vehicle in ‘the left area of the rear bumper.’ The suspect then fled, abandoning the stolen vehicle on Warren Street.”
The release goes on to “stress” to the public “to contact your local police department immediately” upon learning that your vehicle is stolen. The release then advises: “Do not attempt to engage in any form with a criminal suspect, especially with small children present.”
After the release was issued, Garrett called the release “baloney.”
She said she did exactly what the release suggests: She called the police dispatch number right away to report the stolen car, she said, and she stayed on the phone the whole time. There was no report yet because there hadn’t been time for an officer to come meet her family.
She also disagreed with the characterization of her husband “yelling.” She disagreed with the characterization of her family “engaging” the suspect with children on board. She said her husband simply “said ‘hey’” in passing. Garrett said her husband continued driving and did not engage.
“It’s political. They’re trying to accuse me of doing something dangerous with my kids in the car. It’s a stunt,” Garrett argued.
Acting Police Chief John Cappiello said the release was based on the police report and the 911 recording. He said the department is waiting for a review by the town attorney before releasing the police report.
Mayor Leng offered this comment on the incident: “It’s really important for anyone who suspects that a crime has occurred or feels that something may have been stolen to contact the police immediately. I don’t have the police report, so I won’t comment any further until I can review it, other than to say that I’m thankful and relieved that they were not harmed.”
The police don't want people to confront any "criminals" because people might be able to do the job better with less injury to others. They could be out of a job. Sometimes maybe not alway it's probably better to be apart of your community to solve issue rather than call in an outside groups to solve your issues.