Sleuthing Skills Lead to Hit-and-Run Arrest

On 5/24 of this year, a Saab turned left from Rte. 7 onto Rte. 107, crashing into a Chevy pickup truck in front of the new Shell station in Wilton; the Saab’s driver then fled the scene in his car “without exchanging information or checking on the well-being of the person in the vehicle he struck” police reports state. The pickup truck had its whole left side damaged and had to be towed from the scene but the driver was not injured, police said

The responding policeman, Officer , investigated the scene, gathering stray parts of the offending, then-mystery vehicle for evidence. Parts tagged with information identifying the vehicle as a Saab were observed, as were the pickup driver’s corroborative statements, and Hartman subsequently went to the DMV to get a list of all Saab owners in the surrounding area, said Captain John Lynch of the .

Apparently while surveying homes with registered Saab vehicles, Hartman came across a damaged Saab in a resident’s driveway in Redding, police said. Hartman then questioned the vehicle’s owner, identified as Joel Anyan, 69, of South Church Street in Redding, and later obtained a search warrant for the vehicle which yielded a piece of chrome embedded into the Saab that was later identified as coming from the pickup truck, police said.

Last week, Wilton Police charged Anyan with evading responsibility and failure to grant the right of way at an intersection, both misdemeanors since no one was injured, and released him on a promise to appear in court, according to police.