A Car Chase through New Canaan on Friday, Then an Arrest in a Driveway

He got away from the Merritt Parkway, then he got away from police on a New Canaan roadway, but he couldn’t get away after a woman called the cops to tell them he was parked in her driveway, according to a police report.

Here’s the way it happened, according to New Canaan police (whose account is an accusation not proven in court):

Nathaniel Collado, 33 of Hicksville, NY was speeding away from an accident on the Merritt Parkway, police were told, but the driver of the other car, or perhaps a third car, was following him and had a description of the car and a license plate number for police. (State police handled the accident investigation, but New Canaan police did not believe there were any injuries.)

New Canaan police, who sometimes are the first officers to the scene of an accident on the Merritt, received a report of the accident at about 5:13 p.m. Friday and were told about the car leaving it.

An officer driving south on South Avenue, approaching the Merritt, saw a car that fit the description — a black Nissan Altima — drive north on South Avenue and then get onto the Merritt at the entrance there for the southbound lanes. The officer followed, with lights and siren.

Collado didn’t stop, and instead travelled on the Merritt and got off at the next exit, Exit 36. He drove north on Old Stamford Road, turned left onto Jeliff Mill Road and then north on Ponus Ridge Road. At that point, Collado began driving so fast that the chase was called off for safety reasons.

New Canaan police cars were still in the area, looking for the car when a resident of Ponus Ridge Road (not far from its intersection with Clearview Lane) called to tell police that a car was suspiciously parked in her long driveway with a man inside. Her suspicions were raised because the car hadn’t moved in a while.

Police blocked the driveway and approached the car. Collado didn’t try to run and surrendered to police without a struggle.

He told police that he sped off after the accident because his car was uninsured. It also didn’t have real license plates — the ones he were using looked like New York plates but apparently were designed and manufactured for decorative purposes.

Collado, of Pollok Street in Hicksville on Long Island was charged with evading responsibility in a property-damage motor vehicle accident, reckless driving, engaging police in a pursuit by disregarding an officer’s signal, driving without insurance and improper use of a marker plate.

He was initially held on $10,000 bond, but a state bail commissioner lowered that to $5,000. He couldn’t pay that, either, and spent the weekend in jail. He went to state Superior Court in Norwalk on Monday for his arraignment.