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On the Police Logs 12.14.23

Thu, 12/14/2023 - 09:18

Amagansett

A concerned resident summoned police to Hawk’s Nest Lane on the afternoon of Dec. 4, saying he was watching a large truck dump “brown liquid” down a storm drain there. Responding officers identified the truck as belonging to the East Hampton Town Highway Department, which had been clearing the storm drains.

East Hampton Village

A 17-year-old walked into headquarters on Dec. 4 to complain that an employer had given her a check to buy Christmas gifts with, but that when she went to deposit it at the Bank of America the bank informed her that it was a fake, and advised her to report the forgery.

On the morning of Dec. 5 a village police officer noticed a Ram truck driving north on North Main Street without an inspection sticker on the windshield. A check with the Department of Motor Vehicles revealed, according to the report, that the inspection had been suspended a month earlier for failure to buy insurance for the truck. The truck was towed and impounded, and its driver, George Marin, 32, is scheduled for arraignment on Wednesday in Town Justice Court.

A deer ran into the driver’s-side door of Craig Seifert Tilton’s 2017 S.U.V. on North Main Street, near Hook Mill, as the sun was sinking on Dec. 4. The driver was shaken up but okay, but the deer was injured. There was no further information.

A trailer blocking the roadway on the Circle drew the ire of a resident of that street, who reported the issue to police on Friday. An officer spoke with the trailer’s owner, a neighbor of the complainant, and the trailer was moved out of the road.

East Hampton

Roger Kuo called police on Dec. 5 to report that a Florida couple who had rented his house on Two Holes of Water Road had left behind a gun. The weapon was taken for safekeeping to the detectives’ evidence room.

Rosa Ochoa of Copeces Lane called that same day, just before 9 a.m., to report damage to her 2021 Nissan: a dent on the passenger side and a scrape of red paint. Police found a red Chevrolet sedan parked “crooked and extremely close” to her car, and called its owner, who, they reported, admitted he may have hit his neighbor’s Nissan when he opened the door to his Chevrolet.

Kimberley Royal was at her house on the Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike last week when she was surprised by a stranger knocking on her door around 1 a.m. She called police, who found Carlos Pucha-Guaman, who told them he’d set out walking from a friend’s house in Sag Harbor and needed help calling a taxi to take him home to Springs. Police gave him a lift to his destination on Three Mile Harbor Road.

Just after the clock struck midnight Saturday, a resident of Montauk Avenue in Northwest Woods was alarmed by the sight of a stranger, flashlight in hand, walking around a neighbor’s house. Police found a locksmith standing on the porch with a power drill, trying to open the front door, and the homeowner, Jeanine Hartnett, sitting in her car in the driveway. Ms. Hartnett told the officers she’d been locked out for four hours.

Between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m. on Sunday, police received repeated calls from the mobile home park on Oakview Highway complaining of a loud party or loud music emanating from two different locations. Officers found no such disturbance, but when yet another complaint came in at around 4 a.m., they checked again and this time discovered the origin of the calls. According to their report, one of four adult roommates told them that though she’d pretended to be a neighbor when she called, she in fact lived there, was trying to sleep, and had called because she wanted police to scare three male residents who’d been loudly drinking and keeping her awake. One of the men had passed out, police said, and they advised the other two to go to sleep as well.

Montauk

Police were notified at dusk on Dec. 5 that a yellow GMC minibus registered to the Montauk School District had hit a wooden flower planter at the Marshall and Sons Service Station, chipping the wood, before driving away.

Around 7:30 last Thursday morning, Charley Morici discovered Michael Bruno, 37, who gave police an address on Avenue D in Manhattan, asleep inside Fire Department headquarters. Mr. Morici called to report a suspicious person; police spoke to Mr. Bruno but no arrest was made.

Sag Harbor

A cleaning woman accidentally activated a fire alarm in the high school gym at around 11 p.m. on Dec. 4. She told investigating officers that she’d touched it and it went off.

A Lincoln Street resident called on Dec. 5 around midnight and complained that two modular homes had been “dropped in the road,” blocking traffic in both directions. Police contacted the builder, who told them to call the contractor, who let them know that two more would be delivered in two more days, and that furthermore, they had a valid building permit from the village. Police told them it was unacceptable and a place was found on the property to take the homes.

A group of teenagers entered Satori last Thursday just after 5 p.m. and one of them took a pair of green velvet pants into a dressing room. LeeAnn Bulgin went into the room after they left and found a pants hanger but no velvet pants; the young man had left wearing them. She told police she wouldn’t file charges if the pants were returned, but they have not been as yet.

A woman was found sleeping in her car on Washington Street at 4 a.m. on Friday. She told an officer she’d had too much to drink at Murf’s Tavern and had intended to sleep only for a few hours before driving home. She was given a warning.

A business owner went to police headquarters Friday to complain about a nail in her tire, which she suspected had been placed there intentionally by two former employees whom she’d fired the week before. She wanted the incident on record.

A caller alerted officers to a man on Harbor Avenue using a gas-powered leaf blower Sunday morning, which is against village law.

Springs

Peter Mendelman found a wallet belonging to a resident of Oakview Highway at his place of business, Three Mile Harbor Marina, on Dec. 4. In it he found a small plastic bag containing what he suspected might be cocaine residue. He asked police to test the contents, but was told there wasn’t enough to test, and the bag was instead taken to headquarters and marked for destruction.

Two men were seen with open cans of Budweiser beer on Old Fireplace Road on Friday afternoon. Jose Galos, 28, and Santiago Cedillo, 50, were ticketed for violating the town’s open-container laws.

On Saturday morning, Brian Schopfel called police to report an unknown person taking photographs of his house on Cedar Drive. When he approached the stranger, he said, the man addressed him by name and told him he was taking photos for an insurance company. Neither he nor anyone in his household was aware of any such photo session having been scheduled, Mr. Schopfel told police, and he wanted the incident on record. The stranger had driven off in an “older model, cherry-red four-door sedan” by the time police arrived.

On Sunday afternoon, Marine Police ticketed Lynn Clark III of Riverhead for driving along Maidstone Park beach without a beach-driving permit.

Long Days on the Fire Line In Orange County

East Hampton and Amagansett firefighters volunteered to head north last week to help fight a 5,000-acre wildfire in Orange County, N.Y., not once but twice, battling unfamiliar terrain to do so. “They fight fires completely differently than we do when we have a brush fire,” the Amagansett chief said.

Nov 21, 2024

Awards for Good Policing in Handgun Scuffle

“It could have gone worse. We’re lucky that I have officers here that weren’t shot,” said Police Chief Jeff Erickson at Friday’s East Hampton Village Board meeting. Chief Erickson was recognizing Sgt. Wayne Gauger and Officers John Clark and Robbie Greene for a traffic stop on Aug. 31 that turned into a scuffle and the eventual confiscation of an illegal gun.

Nov 21, 2024

On the Police Logs 11.21.24

A Three Mile Harbor Drive resident reported an online dating scam on the afternoon of Nov. 16. Somehow, said the 80-year-old man, a person on the dating platform had gotten his phone number and demanded $2,000 from him, threatening to tell his family he was using the site if he did not comply. Police told the man to block the number.

Nov 21, 2024

Head-On Collision on Route 27

A 2-year-old was taken to Stony Brook Southampton Hospital following a head-on collision Saturday afternoon on State Route 27 near Upland Road in Montauk.

Nov 21, 2024

 

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