5 Suspected Car Thefts in Several Towns Arrested

Canton police have arrested five people suspected in car break-ins in several towns, as well as the theft of a car from New Hartford.

Police started investigating when a resident of the Breezy Hill Road and Old Mill Drive area of Canton called police just after 4:30 a.m. on Sunday to report a slow-moving vehicle and several people going through yards and breaking into vehicles, police said.

Officers arriving at the scene found an unoccupied car running and determined it had been stolen from New Hartford. When officers searched the car, they found items taken from vehicles in Barkhamsted, Avon, Manchester, East Haddam and Canton, police said.

The people who had been in the car ran into the woods to get away, police said, and residents started warning each other about what was going on.

Around 6:20 a.m., residents called police to report suspicious people on Route 44, about a mile away from where the stolen car was found, and police took three people in custody.

An hour later, residents reported two more people on Route 44 and officers took them into custody as well.

Michael Orozco, 20, Hartford; Jose Mena, 18, of Hartford; Jamie Patterson, 18, of New Britain; Paul Lavan, 18, of New Britain; and a 17-year-old were arrested on several charges.

Police said they are continuing to investigate and they are trying to investigate previous break-ins.

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