Matt Guarraia of East Lyme had his car stolen at 2 a.m. on Mother's Day.

"My car was missing for nine days but was eventually recovered in New Britain," he said Thursday in an email. "Police arrested the juvenile who stole it and recovered an unlicensed handgun and narcotics. He was held in a juvenile facility for 30 days and then released."

"I was told this was the third time he had been arrested for car theft," he added.

Guarraia said his car sustained $9,000 worth of damage, including a cracked windshield, all of the rims destroyed, two of the tires popped and other issues. Repairs took almost seven weeks.

Republican state legislators are asking to convene a special session in order to address what they say are worsening juvenile car theft issues.

During a news conference Wednesday morning, House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora, R-North Branford, was joined by others from his party, as well as the chiefs of police of Wolcott and New Britain. They argued that in 2019-20, and throughout the Fourth of July weekend, “We have continued to see a rise in juvenile crime, in car thefts, in property thefts, and in the loss of life and individuals being harmed,” Candelora said.

They asked that the legislature go back into special session — after a special session was already required in June to pass the recreational marijuana and budget implementer bills — to try and find ways to reduce recidivism among juveniles, especially for car thefts.

Here in southeastern Connecticut, police also contend such crimes are rampant. Strings of car thefts have been reported in Waterford, East Lyme and Ledyard in recent months and years. In April, Capt. Matthew Galante of the New London Police Department said the city has seen a drop in juvenile crimes this year, but a stark increase in motor vehicle thefts. In 2020, 84 vehicles were reported stolen, compared to 41 in 2019.

In Norwich, the number of crimes involving juvenile suspects has been climbing for about five years, police Sgt. Harrison Formiglio said in April. Most recently there’s been a spike in the number of car break-ins and thefts, including a number of cases in which teenagers traveled to Norwich from other cities, such as Hartford, to steal cars.

"My car was broken into on Easter Sunday 2020, and nothing ever came from it," Tiffany Jones of Waterford said by email. "They got an old cellphone, my purse and some mail of mine. I was contacted a few days later by Montville police saying that they had my purse and that it was found in Hartford in a car stolen from Montville."

New Britain fatality

A recent hit-and-run incident in New Britain where, police say, a juvenile killed a jogger while driving a stolen car, has raised the political stakes around the issue.

Candelora drew the topic back to the police accountability bill, passed last year and heavily criticized by Republicans. He said the legislation “tied our police officers’ hands on the ability to consent search vehicles, on the ability to pursue these vehicles that are being stolen.”

“These individuals who are committing crimes have nowhere to go. They are being sent back into communities to commit more crimes,” he added. He and others at Wednesday’s news conference said there needs to be a way to impose consequences on repeat offenders rather than sending them back to their families or to group homes.

Senate President Martin Looney, D-New Haven, criticized the Republicans for their stance on this issue.

“We are saddened by the tragedy in New Britain, and our hearts go out to the family and the community there. It is unfortunate that Republicans are using this tragic and painful event to attempt to score political points in an effort to push failed, excessively punitive policies from the '80s and '90s," he said in a statement. "Law and order is only an issue for Republicans when they can target the urban youth of our state but not when their political base tries to overthrow our democracy and kills a U.S. Capitol police officer."

Gov. Ned Lamont has said he doesn’t think new laws are necessary, though he expressed concern about recidivism among those younger than 18 and echoed Republicans in saying that at a certain point repeat-offending juveniles must take responsibility for their actions.

House Democratic and Republican leadership met Wednesday to discuss the issue. After the meeting, House Speaker Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, said leadership is not yet talking about scheduling a special session.

State Rep. Steven Stafstrom, a Bridgeport Democrat and co-chair of the Judiciary Committee, pushed back on Republican talking points.

“Crime rates over the last 10 years have fallen dramatically,” he said. “Nationally we are well below the average. I don’t think this is related to any legislative change. I think it’s a (coronavirus) pandemic-driven increase in crime, but it’s a real concern.”

He said juvenile offenders actually are disciplined through a 22-class program and supervision.

“The recidivism rate after somebody goes through that program is very low,” Stafstrom said. “The issue is more the individual who is charged with a crime is awaiting adjudication for the crime they’ve committed, and they commit crimes in between. What I think we need to look at is, how do we get intervention to that juvenile before the actual date of their adjudication."

While a Republican-backed bill focusing on juvenile car thefts failed this year, parts of it did find its way into two other bills, both ultimately signed into law by the governor, this past session. Senate Bill 1093 makes it a crime to entice a minor into committing a crime, as legislators heard that some adults were recruiting minors to steal cars for them. The bill also requires the state Judicial Branch to study ways to decrease time between a youth's arrest and court appearance.

In addition, House Bill 6505 compels the Judicial Branch to collect data on juvenile detentions and report to the General Assembly in order to better understand and address the issue.

Waterford Police Chief Brett Mahoney argued that the pandemic had little if anything to do with an uptick in car thefts.

“Judging by the crimes that occurred and how it happened here in our town and looking at things across the state, this was criminal behavior, this had nothing to do with COVID,” Mahoney said.

He said he is frustrated by what happens to kids who commit car thefts: “Nothing.”

He told the story of a November 2020 incident in which a juvenile stole a car in Waterford, engaged different police departments from Old Lyme to Westbrook in pursuit and then ended up back in Waterford, where the juvenile crashed into a police lieutenant’s car. The lieutenant was injured but returned to work. The police car, which ended up in a swamp, was not so lucky, Mahoney said. The incident did not end up in police logs because the offender was a minor.

The juvenile received a summons to court and then was reunited with his family.

Mahoney said he’s upset that he can’t support victims the way he’d like to. He made a similar point to Candelora about Democrats passing criminal justice initiatives.

“There’s a lot of support for people that commit crimes, there seems to be a lack of support for people that are victims of crimes,” Mahoney said. “There are people who rely on vehicles to get to their jobs, to provide for their family, to keep their mortgage going. We’re not doing anything to the people stealing the cars.”

s.spinella@theday.com