On the Police Logs 06.12.14

Amagansett

An unwelcome visitor apparently looking for a bed to sleep in free of charge kicked open a door at a Pine Way house at some point over the past two weeks. The frame and door were damaged and will cost about $300 to repair. Adam Young told police on Saturday that the intruder had slept in a bed, but had not taken anything.

 

East Hampton

An American flag on a wooden pole was stolen from the driveway of an Indian Hill Road house on Friday night. George Cafiso told police he had good relationships with his neighbors.

A Middle Highway man thought he was buying a 2003 Jeep Wrangler on eBay last month when he wired $3,960 to someone posing as a seller. The website told Steven Cohen that several accounts had been used by an unknown hacker. The site recently required all users to change their user IDs after a data breach.

 

East Hampton Village

A 14-year-old East Hampton Middle School student had her mountain bike stolen over the Memorial Day weekend. She had left it in front of the school. She reported the theft to police last week, valuing the bicycle at $100.

 

Montauk

Main Street in Montauk was the scene of an altercation between a shoeless woman and a cab driver from Brooklyn at 2:30 a.m. on Saturday. The woman had gotten into a taxicab being driven by Mohammed Khan without her purse and shoes, and asked to be taken to an A.T.M. machine. Once there, she accused the driver of stealing her purse, “then slapped him in the face and stole his sunglasses.” An officer located the young woman and retrieved Mr. Khan’s Ray-Ban sunglasses. Mr. Khan declined to press charges. Another cab driver agreed to take the woman to her destination. The second cab driver said that for payment, he would “manually enter her credit card number, which she knew off the top of her head.”

All four tires on a Toyota RAV4 parked overnight on South Emerson Avenue were punctured and flattened last month. Deja Restrepo reported the vandalism on May 25. The repairs were estimated at $150.

A 100-pound antique whalebone that sat outside the front door of a Rehan Avenue house was stolen earlier this spring. Robert Melet told police that, because the sale of whalebone is now banned, it would be impossible to replace. He had been away from the house since late March and returned on May 3, when he discovered the theft and called the police.

 

Sag Harbor

A driver for Jeb Taxi, a company apparently based UpIsland that sends part of its fleet into Montauk on weekends during the summer season, picked up a passenger in that hamlet headed for the Sag Harbor Yacht Club at about 5 a.m. on Sunday. John Herrmann, the driver, took the man’s credit card before making the trip, for which he charged $200. When he got to the yacht club, the passenger, identified only as John, got out of the cab without paying and got onto his boat. Mr. Herrmann called police after the credit card he was holding failed to go through. Police told him they would follow up with the yacht club.

Police received a call from Denise Schoen, who was concerned about a group congregating on a dilapidated dock on Ferry Road on Sunday afternoon. An officer agreed that the dock was unsafe, told the group to leave it, and roped the area off.

Police monitored the annual Sag Harbor Soap Box Derby on Sunday afternoon. It went forward without incident.

Alan Furst, a best-selling author of spy novels and historical thrillers, called police last week for the second time in the past two months, concerned that he is the target of electronic skullduggery. Mr. Furst reported on June 3 that, while he had been away from his Hampton Street house for about 24 hours starting May 30, “an unknown person did change his voice recording on his home telephone answering machine.” Instead of his normal personal message, Mr. Furst told police, the outgoing recording had been switched to the generic default one that comes with the machine. He said that he did not believe anyone had entered the house, and that someone had possibly hacked into his system. Mr. Furst had previously reported a “suspicious incident” to the police on April 10, saying that he had been the target of a hacker who had “entered his computer and moved items around” on his screen from a remote location. He had also received a strange phone call at 2 a.m. that day from a caller who hung up after one ring. He said he was concerned that someone may be harassing him because of his work as a novelist.

The resident of a house facing Havens Beach called police on the morning of June 4 to complain that four kayaks had been abandoned on the publicly owned beach to the north of his house. By the time police arrived, the kayakers, who had gone for a walk on the beach, had reclaimed their craft and paddled away.

 

Springs

The owners of Cyril’s Fish House on Napeague gave a Church Lane man a check for $3,000 in order to rent a room for two employees. The owner of the house cashed the check and then reneged on the deal, causing John Fairchild, the restaurant’s manager, to call the police. Police got in touch with the homeowner, who agreed to pay Cyril Fitzsimons back the $3,000, in installments.

Victoria Black of Sandra Drive had $4,000 stolen by a worker in her house about a month ago, police said. Les Black told police that his wife had kept the money in three envelopes, hidden in a yearbook near her bed. Mr. Black gave the police the name of his wife’s caregiver, who had access to the house while the Blacks were away between April 20 and May 15. Mr. Black said they would not press charges if the money is returned. Police are investigating.