Police & Courts

Update: A 56-year-old Riverside man last seen on Oct. 11 and reported missing on Nov. 3 was found dead in the woods off Route 114 in East Hampton on Monday morning.

According to an audit released on Dec. 24 by the New York State comptroller's office, the Montauk Fire District failed to file three years' worth of required financial reports, paid out unauthorized longevity and overtime to employees, and lacked oversight and consistency in administering its length-of-service award program (LOSAP) for Montauk's 131 volunteer firefighters and emergency medical technicians.

A businesswoman on Springs-Fireplace Road contacted police recently after people told her they were receiving strange messages from her on WhatsApp and asked if “everything was okay.” Police told her to deactivate the account and contact her customers by other means.

Sag Harbor Village police spotted what appeared to be 12 drones flying at different altitudes over the Lance Cpl. Jordan Haerter Bridge last Thursday evening, after a caller reported seeing around seven of them that same night.

Two local men were hit by cars while bicycling on the evening of Dec. 19. One was taken to the hospital.

East Hampton Village police charged a local man last week with stealing $2,450 worth of merchandise, a class-E felony, from the Louis Vuitton store at the corner of Main Street and Newtown Lane.

A dumpster fire sparked at the recycling center on Springs-Fireplace Road on Friday afternoon. East Hampton firefighters arrived and tamed the blaze.

The Shinnecock Indian Nation has found itself on the defensive once again over its electronic billboards on Sunrise Highway, which have been operating since 2019 and continued to do so this week despite a court ruling demanding they go dark.

Multiple swastikas were found spray-painted on signs Wednesday morning at Shadmoor State Park in Montauk by a New York State Parks employee doing routine maintenance.

A single-car accident on Three Mile Harbor Road in Springs, in which a driver struck mailboxes and shrubs by the side of the road, led to an arrest on a charge of felony drunken driving on the night of Nov. 30.

Police went to Iacono’s Farm on Long Lane on the morning of Nov. 20 to investigate a theft of eggs. Apparently two people, whose identities were redacted, had taken three boxes of eggs from the honor box outside without paying. One of them agreed to pay $24 in restitution.

Carl Irace, a Sag Harbor Village Justice and local attorney who argued a case last month before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, has since been appointed to represent a defendant on federal charges involving a fentanyl-induced death.

A caller reported a man “trying to give candy out of his trunk to kids” near the duck pond at the Nature Trail. Police spoke with the man, who said he keeps snacks in his car because he works for a family with children. While cleaning out the car, he said, he saw a child and thought it would be nice to offer him a snack. Police determined that he was “not attempting to lure anyone near his vehicle.”

Two drivers were taken to Stony Brook Southampton Hospital after recent accidents on local roads.

A former Montauk businessman was sentenced Monday to serve three to nine years in prison after pleading guilty to three counts of second-degree and two counts of third-degree grand larceny for a scheme that defrauded businesses of $400,000 over three years.

At a West Lake Drive house in Montauk on Oct. 28, East Hampton Town police arrested a local man on a charge of violating an order of protection, a class E felony.

An Egypt Lane woman reported a deer stuck in vines on the afternoon of Nov. 18. Village police arrived, but the deer was no longer there. It “must have escaped,” they reported.

The Southampton Town Police Department will run a Civilian Police Academy, which will teach residents about department operations, starting on Jan. 16 at 6 p.m.

Three men were taken to Stony Brook Southampton Hospital Saturday night after a collision on Abraham’s Path, south of Springs-Fireplace Road.

“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.

At a West Lake Drive house in Montauk on Oct. 28, East Hampton Town police arrested a local man on a charge of violating an order of protection, a class-E felony.

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.

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.

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.

The Southampton Town Police Department will run a Civilian Police Academy, which will teach residents about department operations, starting on Jan. 16 at 6 p.m.

A fire that started in a basement laundry room at 66 David's Lane at around 1:45 p.m. Wednesday was extinguished quickly by the East Hampton Fire Department.

East Hampton Village police pulled a vehicle over on Woods Lane after a report that it had been tailgating an ambulance. Police issued a warning after the driver apologized and said it was his wife in the ambulance.

East Hampton and Amagansett Fire Departments were among 10 Suffolk County departments that offered support to fight the wildfires in Orange County, N.Y., as a heightened wildfire risk persists statewide.

A Facebook post circulating in the community concerning a lost 2-year-old child is a scam, the East Hampton Town Police Department announced Monday morning.

A woman at the Amagansett train station reported “an older man making eye contact” with her on Friday evening and walking around her car. Eventually, she told police, he attempted to open her locked car door. Police could not find him.