Car’s location tracking, DNA tests led to arrest in Glastonbury theft – Journal Inquirer

A stolen BMWs onboard tracking device led police to where the car was parked on a Hartford street in November, and swabbings taken from the cars steering wheel produced DNA evidence that enabled them to arrest a Hartford man in the theft last week.

Thats according to an affidavit by Glastonbury police Officer John Barrett that was the basis for the arrest Thursday of Felix Flores, 21, of Hartford.

Flores is charged with second-degree larceny and second-degree criminal trover in the Nov. 17 theft of the car from the parking lot of the Somerset Square shopping center.

Criminal trover is defined as using property without the owners permission and damaging it or reducing its value.

The cars owner told police that she paid a $250 deductible and her insurance company paid more than $4,100 for a safety check of the car after it was returned, repairs to the wheel rims, and replacing its keys, Barrett reported. She said she also paid more than $150 for new keys to her house, had to replace the cars tires earlier than she had wanted to and found that the car smelled of smoke, possibly affecting its resale value.

Flores, who was in jail on other charges when Glastonbury police charged him in the car theft last week, is being held in lieu of $201,000 bond only $1,000 of it stemming from the Glastonbury case, online state records show.

In his other cases, he is facing two felony counts of possessing narcotics with intent to sell and a probation violation charge in an old narcotics sale case. Another of his cases is largely sealed from public view, online court records show.

No lawyer representing him could be located for comment Monday.

At a time when vehicle theft and associated violence are topics of intense public discussion in Glastonbury and other towns, a close look at a case like this one gives some idea of what it takes for police to make an arrest in such a case.

Barretts affidavit recounts the following:

The theft victim, who works in a Somerset Square office, noticed something amiss after grabbing her coat from a utility closet on Nov. 17. As she took a walk around the shopping complex, she realized that her car keys werent in her pocket.

When she returned her coat to the closet, she realized for the first time that it was in disarray, with opened letters and garbage strewn around. After failing to find her keys in her purse, she looked out the window and saw that her 2015 BMW wasnt in the parking lot.

Two days later Barrett contacted her to see if BMW was tracking the car, and she said she it was. A short time later, Hartford police found the car, unoccupied and parked on Elliot Street, off Wethersfield Avenue across from Bulkeley High School.

The car was towed to the Glastonbury police station, where it was processed, including taking swabs for DNA. DNA swabs had also been taken from the door handle of the utility closet in Somerset Square.

The state Forensic Science Laboratory tested the samples and uploaded the results to a database, which produced an offender hit for Flores.

With a search warrant, Barrett took a DNA sample from Flores at the jail where he was an inmate.

The forensic lab reported that Flores was eliminated as a contributor to the DNA on the closet door but was included as a possible contributor to the steering wheel DNA, which was a mixture from at least three people, including one male. If there were three contributors, the lab concluded, it was at least 100 billion times more likely that Flores was one of them than that the sample came from three unknown people.

For updates on Glastonbury, and recent crime and courts coverage in North-Central Connecticut, follow Alex Wood on Twitter: @AlexWoodJI1,Facebook: Alex Wood, and Instagram: @AlexWoodJI.

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Car's location tracking, DNA tests led to arrest in Glastonbury theft - Journal Inquirer