Guelph man facing more than two dozen charges, police seize homemade conducted energy weapon

The interior of an Audi vehicle is seen in this undated stock image. (Guillaume Meurice/Pexels.com)

A Guelph man is facing more than two dozen charges after police said he was arrested while driving a stolen vehicle.

The Guelph Police Service and the Ontario Provincial Police’s Repeat Offender Parole Enforcement Squad worked together to find the man at a Kitchener address and arrest him.

They said the man was the focus on an ongoing investigation and he was driving a black Audi A7 with fake licence plates.

Investigators determined the vehicle had been stolen from Waterloo Region earlier this month. During the arrest, a search of the vehicle revealed a homemade conducted energy weapon (colloquially referred to as a Taser), a switchblade knife, suspected crystal methamphetamine and a credit card police believe was stolen.

A 39-year-old man’s charges include motor vehicle theft, two counts of possessing stolen property over $5,000, possessing a prohibited weapon, resisting arrest, possessing a controlled substance and more than a dozen counts of breaching court orders.

The arrest comes after two males in a white Audi Q3 with fake licence plates went to a Guelph business on Oct. 28., according to police. One of the suspects pried open a lockbox and stole the keys to a customer’s 2017 Cadillac. The males took off with both vehicles.

Police said that same white Audi was also used in at least two gas drive-off thefts in Guelph. The vehicle was later found in Waterloo Region and investigators were able to determine it had been stolen from Fergus.