A federal district court judge has ruled that a lawsuit by environmentalists over the government’s handling of the potential sale of Plum Island can go forward.

Judge Denis Hurley of the Eastern District of New York ruled on Thursday that the Connecticut Fund for the Environment/Save the Sound and six other organizations have standing to sue the Department of Homeland Security and the General Services Administration over their plan to auction the island to the highest bidder.

The federal government has owned Plum Island since 1899. It has been used as a research laboratory since World War II, and a variety of infectious animal-borne diseases has been studied there since 1954.

The Department of Homeland Security announced in 2005 that the facility’s activities would be moved to the new Bio-and-Agro Defense Facility in Kansas. The cost of relocating to Kansas was to be offset by the sale of the island. Elected officials including Representative Lee Zeldin and his predecessor, Tim Bishop, have opposed the plan.

Mr. Zeldin, in fact, introduced a Plum Island Preservation Act in the House of Representatives, which has been passed twice with bipartisan support but awaits Senate consideration. It seeks to commission the Government Accountability Office, in consultation with Homeland Security, to develop a comprehensive plan for the island’s future. The legislation requires that the plan focus on conservation, education, and research, and include alternative uses for the island, including a transfer of ownership to another federal agency, to the state or local municipality, a nonprofit organization, or a combination thereof.

“The current law, which mandates the sale of the island to the highest bidder, is the wrong path forward,” Mr. Zeldin said in a statement, “because it does not provide for public access and permanent preservation of the island, or the continued use of the research infrastructure. The state-of-the-art research facility at Plum Island must not go to waste, and preserving this island’s natural beauty while maintaining a research mission will continue to provide important economic and environmental benefits to Long Island.”

The environmental groups filed suit in 2016, arguing that the federal agencies violated provisions of the National Environmental Protection Act, Endangered Species Act, Coastal Zone Management Act, and other federal laws by failing to adequately consider the environmental impact of a sale.

Judge Hurley rejected the Homeland Security and General Services Administration’s February 2017 motion to dismiss, citing arguments in the complaint that the 840-acre island provides habitat for several federally endangered and threatened flora and fauna, including the roseate tern and piping plover. The waters surrounding the island are home to federally listed marine species such as Atlantic hawksbill sea turtles, Kemp’s ridley turtles, and Atlantic sturgeon.

“This is a very well-written decision that denies the government’s motion to dismiss in its entirety,” Roger Reynolds, chief legal officer for the organizations, said in a statement. “We’ll now have the opportunity to present our full case to the court and ask that the sale of the island be halted until the agencies complete a proper environmental review in accordance with federal law.”

The decision, said Bob DeLuca, president of Group for the East End, is “an early and important victory for everyone who believes Plum Island is a critical part of our nation’s natural heritage that should not be auctioned off like a piece of meat to the highest bidder. This ruling is also a victory for due process in supporting the rights of individual citizens and conservation organizations to challenge the actions of government bureaucrats when those actions fail to follow the specific requirements of environmental law.”

Deepwater Wind, the Rhode Island company that plans to construct the South Fork Wind Farm approximately 36 miles east of Montauk, has asked East Hampton Town for easements allowing it to land the offshore installation’s transmission cable at Beach Lane in Wainscott.

During a presentation before the town board on Tuesday, officials from the company, which built and operates the five-turbine Block Island Wind Farm, presented the most extensive survey data to date with respect to that offshore installation. It will deliver those data, and to-date analyses of the area of its proposed South Fork Wind Farm, to the East Hampton Town Trustees’ harbor management committee tomorrow at 6 p.m. at Town Hall. 

Tuesday’s presentation was “a precursor to work that will all become public,” Clint Plummer, Deepwater Wind’s vice president of development, told the board. The company plans to submit applications to multiple federal and state permitting agencies by the end of March in order to meet a timeline to begin operations by the end of 2022. The process requires the company to demonstrate that it has obtained easements over municipally owned land, which the landing at Beach Lane, and the cable’s path to the Buell Lane, East Hampton, substation would necessitate. “We can’t submit applications if we’re going to use town-owned land unless we have consent from this board,” he said. 

Councilman Jeffrey Bragman questioned the premise of Mr. Plummer’s statement. “It seems to me, in my experience in environmental review, there’s usually a formal process in which your data is presented and analyzed by the reviewing entity,” he said. “I’m hoping that this kind of presentation is not what the project sponsors consider to be an environmental review that would be sufficient for the Town of East Hampton.” 

There will be multiple levels of review, Mr. Plummer said, and the town will participate in all of them, but “We need the town’s consent to begin that process. . . . What we’re asking for is a conditioned decision” granting rights conditioned upon receipt of all the other required approvals.

“We have alternatives,” Mr. Plummer said, referring to state-owned land in Hither Hills, by which Deepwater Wind could bypass town board and trustee approval. “Our preference is to work closely with the town, and have conditioned approval so we can start a process using a town-owned location.” 

That, Mr. Bragman said, “sounds a little like a slight arm-twist, saying you can’t work with the town” if the board opts to conduct an environmental quality review. “Intermittent presentations,” he said, are not “a cohesive way to evaluate the science you’re talking about.” 

But “we’re not reviewing the entire project or its impacts,” Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc told Mr. Bragman. “We’re talking about a landing site and easements over land to Buell Lane. So any review we would undertake would be specifically looking at potential impacts within those areas. Beyond that, all that review still has to take place as part of the myriad other permits and process.” 

Mr. Bragman was unmoved. “I’m not that crazy about handing off review to a federal agency that starts that review knowing they have our consent to land that cable when we haven’t looked at the issues,” he said. If town approval is required, an environmental analysis should precede the town’s consent, he said. 

Deepwater Wind seeks “a real estate right, not a permit, conditioned upon receipt of all the other approvals,” Mr. Plummer repeated, “subject to additional state and federal approval.” 

“I think we support the concept,” Mr. Bragman answered, but “I want to make sure the town doesn’t wave you through without taking a good look at it. This kind of presentation makes me a little uneasy,” if it is to serve as the basis of the board’s decision, he said.  

The exchange followed summaries of Deepwater Wind’s pre and post-construction surveys of the Block Island Wind Farm. “We learned a lot” from that project, said Aileen Kenny of Deepwater Wind, the majority of which is transferable to the South Fork Wind Farm. “Stakeholder engagement, early and often,” was one lesson, she said, and pointed to the Jan. 10 forum the company held in Montauk. 

The most important takeaway from studies of the Block Island Wind Farm “is how much science has been done there,” said Drew Carey, a consulting scientist for Deepwater Wind, calling a six-year survey spanning pre to post-construction unprecedented. 

Regular data collection demonstrates no difference, in terms of marine life or habitat, between the area where the Block Island Wind Farm’s five turbines are situated and nearby survey areas, Mr. Carey said. 

An examination of the condition and stomach contents of fish including winter flounder, summer flounder, silver hake, red hake, spotted hake, and Atlantic cod show no impact from construction or operation, he said, nor was prey availability affected. A lobster trap survey designed in conjunction with commercial fishermen is also showing no adverse impact, he said. 

Mr. Carey told the board that the electromagnetic field emanating from the South Fork Wind Farm’s transmission cable would not pose a danger to human or marine life. Modeling, he said, does not take into account that the cable will be buried. 

A study addressing the topic will be submitted to the town in the coming weeks, Mr. Plummer said. But, he emphasized, “This isn’t new. Submarine cables have been landed on Long Island for a long time.” Existing cables carry much higher voltage, “all without impact to humans and fish, for at minimum a decade,” he said.

A particular focus, Ms. Kenny said, is the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale, which suffered “a difficult year” in 2017 with multiple mortalities in the North Atlantic. “We commit to volunteer time restrictions on pile driving,” she said. “Not that pile driving would physically harm” the animals, but it could cause a mother and calf to go farther offshore, making them more vulnerable to predation. 

“Protected species observers” will call for construction to be halted if marine mammals are sited within a certain distance of the South Fork Wind Farm site, she said. The company works with groups including the National Wildlife Foundation, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Conservation Law Foundation, the New England Aquarium, and the Mystic Aquarium “to come up with ways we can take extra measures” to protect marine mammals, she said. Avian and bat surveys indicate that the Block Island Wind Farm has not proven hazardous to winged species, she added.

Most commercial fishermen on the South Fork remain opposed to the project, and the East Hampton Town Trustees will continue to demand that Deepwater Wind demonstrate that their concerns about disruption or destruction of their livelihood are unfounded. 

Fishermen have been invited to attend tomorrow’s meeting of the harbor management committee at Town Hall, said Rick Drew, a deputy clerk of the trustees and member of the committee. “The trustees have supported and protected East Hampton’s fishing interests for 350 years,” he said this week, “and we will continue to protect and support fishing interests, both commercial and recreational . . . going forward into a new era of offshore wind energy.”

Frank Newbold, the chairman of the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals, began its meeting on Friday by asking for a moment of silent remembrance for William J. Fleming, an attorney who died last Thursday. 

“Bill has appeared many times in front of this board,” he said, “and I know that we will all miss his knowledge, and his wit, going forward.”

The board then went on to take a second look at Ronald Perelman’s application to legalize the construction and alteration of multiple structures at the Creeks, his 58-acre estate on Georgica Pond, following the submission of requested materials including maps, surveys, drawings, and a landscape restoration plan. 

In 2012, the village discovered that the billionaire investor and philanthropist had constructed and altered multiple structures at the Creeks without building permits, while, more recently, the village board declined his proposal to resolve the violations by the creation of a new zoning district. 

Mr. Perelman seeks to legalize the enlargement of an accessory building housing a small synagogue to 1,275 square feet, where the maximum permitted for an accessory building is 250 square feet, along with legalization of the building’s three rooms and two bathrooms, where only one room is permitted, and permission for the building to remain at a height of 15.1 feet, where the maximum is 14 feet.

He also seeks variances to legalize 160 square feet of additions to the main residence and for the earlier extension, expansion, and alteration of nonconforming accessory buildings containing cooking and living facilities. The additions are 100 feet from wetlands, where a 150-foot setback is required. 

The combined floor area for the one-family dwellings would be 28,407 square feet, where 26,236 square feet is the legally pre-existing total. 

Variances would also be required to legalize the construction of a 5,802-square-foot barn with cooking and living facilities, which Mr. Perelman proposes in exchange for converting a 4,217-square-foot carriage house, also containing cooking and living, into an accessory building with storage space, mechanical areas, a generator, a workshop, a garage, and a bathroom.

A workout room in a separate building, which was enlarged from 575 to 795 square feet and falls within the wetlands setback, also requires variances. In addition, area and wetlands setback variances are required to legalize six pieces of art and sculptures installed within the rear-yard and wetlands setbacks, the nearest directly on the rear-yard lot line and wetlands; the required rear-yard setback is 40 feet, the required wetlands setback 150 feet. 

Wetlands setback variances would also be necessary for a chicken coop and trellises and for the clearing of vegetation and landscaping within 125 feet of wetlands. Finally, a maintenance tent that is 67 square feet larger than the maximum permitted also requires a variance.

On Friday, Mr. Newbold focused on the applicant’s proposal to legalize the barn in exchange for converting the carriage house to a non-habitable structure, which he referred to as the transfer of rights.

 “The sense of the board is that transferring is not a concept currently in our village code, and we wouldn’t want to set a precedent here,” he said. The requested variances would be considered on their own merits, he said, and weighed against mitigation offered. 

Linda Riley, the village’s attorney, said that Mr. Perelman seeks an area variance for the barn on the basis that there’s no new use being introduced, but she suggested that he may in fact need a use variance. “We need to clarify, because it has always been the position of this board that introduction of a new dwelling on a lot that is already improved with one or more dwellings requires a use variance. . . . I just want to be careful about how you’re going to regard future applications for construction of an entirely new residence or dwelling on a lot that already has dwellings.”

Leonard Ackerman, an attorney representing Mr. Perelman, argued that the application meets the requirements for an area variance, and the mitigation offered — eliminating habitable space from the carriage house — entitles the granting of that variance. “We’ve done an exorbitant amount of research and analysis,” he said, “to demonstrate that as the steward of this property, the applicant should be and is” entitled to relief.

Mr. Newbold asked for a more detailed revegetation plan and said that 70,000 square feet of a proposed 110,188-square-foot buffer between the property and Georgica Pond had been illegally cleared within the 125-foot wetlands setback. He said Mr. Perelman’s landscape planner should meet with Billy Hajek, the village’s planner, to review the revegetation.

The chairman also said that the application proposed a new septic-system for the carriage house, synagogue building, workout room, pool cabana, and barn as “phase one” of an upgrade. He therefore asked how the second phase, to follow in two years and cover everything else on the property, would be enforced. Ms. Riley said she would discuss the matter with code enforcement officials.

Finally, Mr. Newbold repeated a suggestion made previously: Would the applicant consider reducing or even eliminating some of the nonconforming structures? The board seeks to make any variance relief as minimal as possible, he said. “Just something for you to consider,” he advised Mr. Ackerman.

The hearing was left open and will be continued at the board’s next meeting, on Feb. 9.

Decisions Announced

Six determinations were announced at the meeting.

 The board denied Patricia Romanzi’s application for variances to legalize the intensification of the commercial property at 15 Toilsome Lane through the addition of two office units on a lot that does not meet the on-site parking requirements. Ms. Romanzi operates a mortgage company, Par East, there.

According to Mr. Newbold, the building must revert to the four units specified on the original certificate of occupancy. The code stipulates that two additional parking spaces must be provided for each additional unit in a building; the lot at 15 Toilsome Lane would need 43 spaces to comply; it has 23. 

Edward and Diane Curland were granted variances allowing a deck and fire pit to remain within required setbacks at 46 Baiting Hollow Road. The board also approved 2,804 square feet of coverage where the maximum is 2,340 square feet, 

The board granted Nancy Perl and Alexander Benderoth a variance to allow a generator to remain within the front-yard setback at 63 Jericho Road.

At 92 Georgica Close Road, Walter Weil was granted a wetlands permit to allow removal of phragmites by hand-cutting and mechanical excavation; pool equipment to remain within the wetlands and rear-yard setbacks, and a generator to remain within the wetlands setback.

Francois Simard was granted variances to allow four statues, an air-conditioning condenser, a concrete stoop, paving stones, and a propane tank to remain within required setbacks at 116 Pantigo Road, but his application to allow a hot tub, pool heater, and pool filter to remain within side-yard setbacks was denied.

Benjamin Lewis and Jane Goldman were granted variances at 74 Lee Avenue for the 74-square-foot extension of a nonconforming second dwelling, for which a special permit had been granted in 2000. Also approved were slate patios, air-conditioning units, a trampoline, a chimney, below-grade HVAC, and pool equipment that fall within required setbacks.

A seal pup that was rescued after it was discovered on an Amagansett roadside on Tuesday afternoon is in good health.

The seal almost surely came from Gardiner’s Bay, some 150 yards distant. How it got to the middle of Bendigo Road is not known, though it appeared to have waddled up a long driveway from a waterfront house. Bud Pitts of Amagansett was driving west on Bendigo Road, saw it in the middle of the road, and thought someone had hit a dog. Another vehicle had stopped, as well.

But what the drivers took at first to be a dead dog turned out to be a very live seal. Dell Cullum of Hampton Wildlife Removal and Rescue was called, as were the police. Both were on the scene in minutes. Mr. Cullum immediately contacted the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation.

Marine mammals are quite different from land mammals, the rescue of which Mr. Cullum specializes in. As he described the young seal over the phone, Sgt. Dan Roman and Mr. Pitts, using a board from the latter’s truck, began an operation they would continue for the next hour: guiding the seal away from the roadway, and keeping it safe until help arrived.

Over that time period, the seal, a little over two feet long, would intermittently bark, snap, and do its best to get away. The sun was setting, and the temperature was dropping. By the time the foundation’s truck arrived, it was dark. Kristina Hansen examined the animal. It was a young gray seal, she said, slightly underweight. “He’s a couple of months old,” she said aloud. “Face looks good. No visible wounds.”

Video by T.E. McMorrow

The problem she was facing, along with a volunteer from the foundation, Ashley Longo, was . . . what now? The preferred procedure for what appear to be healthy seals is to guide them back to the water. In the dark, with the water’s edge at least 150 yards away, that was not a practical solution. Ms. Hansen, whose job title is given on the foundation’s website as stranding technician, called her supervisor.

It was decided that, since she would have to place the seal in a cage, anyway, to get it to the water, it would be best to take it to Riverhead, give it a good meal and a thorough checkup, then release it back into the wild. Mr. Cullum, Sergeant Roman, and Mr. Pitts held the cage as Ms. Hansen captured the seal in a blanket, holding it up to allow the men to bring the cage toward the frightened animal. The cage was soon secured to the back of the truck. Ms. Hansen expressed optimism about the seal’s future. “He’s very vocal. Very mobile.” And off they went.

“He is doing well,” Charles Bowman, the president of the Riverhead Foundation, said yesterday of his young charge. “He’s about a month old.” Gray seals leave their mothers at about that age and can become disoriented, he said, offering the most likely explanation for the pup’s odyssey, “he just headed in the wrong direction.”

Seven Suffolk County legislators and the Legislature’s presiding officer and deputy presiding officer wrote to Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke on Friday to express opposition to the Trump administration’s plan to open the outer continental shelf to oil and gas exploration and drilling. 

Bridget Fleming, who represents the Towns of East Hampton and Southampton as well as Shelter Island and parts of East Moriches and Eastport, was among the signatories of the letter. It noted that more than 98 percent of the outer continental shelf includes a region encompassing the county.

 “Suffolk County is home to more than 100 public beaches stretching over 1,000 miles of coastline; our county depends on our tourism industry and our marine resources,” the letter reads. “This program will cause substantial harm to our county’s tourism revenue and employment industries as well as our precious marine resources.” 

Given Florida’s removal from consideration because its coastline’s economy is reliant on tourism, “we request that Suffolk County also be immediately removed from consideration for any new oil and gas platforms,” the letter reads.

David Lys of Springs has been selected to fill an open seat on the East Hampton Town Board vacated after Peter Van Scoyoc was sworn in as town supervisor on Jan. 2.

Mr. Lys's formal appointment is expected at a town board meeting tonight, according to a statement issued by Mr. Van Scoyoc's office.

His entry into town government came in 2013, when he was appointed to the zoning board of appeals. He was a founder of Citizens for Access Rights, which was formed in response to lawsuits by oceanfront property owners opposed to four-wheel-drive traffic on the beach. He is also the president of the Amagansett Life-Saving and Coast Guard Station society, responsible for the upkeep and fund-raising at the historic station on Atlantic Avenue.

Mr. Lys and his wife, Rachel, own East Hampton Physical Therapy and Weekend Warriors Tours and Outfitters. He graduated from East Hampton High School in 1994 and from Penn State University in 2000 with a degree in kinesiology.

The board seat Mr. Lys will occupy will be contested in a special election in November. The winner will serve until the end of 2019.

Because of what the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals and the village board consider the growing complexity of applications that require lengthy review by multiple officials and departments, a decision has been made for it to meet once a month instead of twice. The reduced schedule was announced at the board’s meeting on Friday. 

The zoning board met on the second and fourth Friday of every month; it will now meet only on the second Friday. The village board, Frank Newbold, the zoning board’s chairman, said, made the change. Although board members apparently are satisfied with it, an attorney who appears before the board frequently argued against it.

Leonard Ackerman, who represents Ronald Perelman, criticized the move. “Whether or not application materials are ‘lengthy’ or ‘complex,’ ” he wrote in an email on Monday, “residents deserve to have their applications heard in a timely manner. This step will double the time it takes to get an application on the calendar and lead to logjams as applications compete for space on the calendar, which will lead to even more delays before an application is decided.” 

However, Pam Bennett, the village deputy clerk, explained the need for the change by comparing the workloads of the zoning boards of the village and East Hampton Town. From January through August 2017, she said, the zoning board of the town, which had a population of  21,247 according to the 2010 census, received 68 applications. The village, with a population of 1,083, received 57. The village’s zoning board, she said, “needs more time to review the applications that they receive. There’s a lot.”

Proving the workload on Friday, four new applications were discussed along with continued hearings on three others, the latter including Mr. Perelman’s application to legalize multiple structures on his 58-acre property, the Creeks, which is reported separately. Also reported separately are six determinations.

Applications “often require lengthy review by the village planner, the Building Department,” and board members, Mr. Newbold said in an email on Sunday. Mr. Perelman’s is a good example, he said. “So far, it has generated a two-foot-high stack of legal submissions. By changing to a monthly schedule, it gives everyone involved more time to carefully evaluate the issues.” Mr. Newbold also said application forms have been revised and updated, an effort intended to streamline the process.

At its meeting on Jan. 9, the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals gave the green light to plans by the Montauk Historical Society to adorn with cellphone antennas the concrete fire control tower that sits next to the Montauk Point Lighthouse.

The society now needs to get final site plan approval from the town’s planning board to move ahead with the project, which calls for AT&T to install three sets of three flat cellphone antenna panels on three of the four sides of the tower, which was built by the Army in 1942, next to the iconic lighthouse. A global positioning system will be set up at the top of the tower, and all electrical components of the project will be installed inside it.

The society needed a variance from the section of the town code that prohibits cell towers in areas zoned for parks and conservation, as Montauk Point is. 

While the antennas will service only calls from AT&T customers, it will automatically connect anyone in the surrounding area who dials 911 to the police, no matter what company he or she is using. This was a major selling point for the four board members who voted to approve the variance request for the project. A fifth board member, Theresa Berger, had recused herself during deliberations. 

“The applicant has come in and proved the public necessity,” the board’s David Lys said of the flat antennas, which will be painted to match the color of the lighthouse. 

“There are a number of people, a number of anglers on the Point on those rocks,” Cate Rogers said. Right now, if there is an emergency, it can be difficult to call the police. “I think this is a good idea,” Ms. Rogers said.

One concern board members had was that after AT&T installs its antennas, other companies will seek to do so. That fear was allayed by Beth Baldwin, the board’s attorney, who said that an approval of the variance would apply strictly to AT&T. Any other company would have to go back to the board for a new variance. 

“I like the idea of this thing not becoming a Christmas tree,” Mr. Whelan said.

An Amagansett man is hoping to find a witness to an accident in which his 2009 Toyota sedan was severely damaged at about 4 p.m. on Jan. 7. Tomasz Nowicki, the car’s owner, had parked on the north side of Main Street near the Amagansett Jitney stop, when snow clearing was taking place on the sidewalks. 

According to the East Hampton Town police accident report, the car was hit at the rear of the driver’s side by a snow blower being operated by a town employee, who was identified as David R. Kent. Mr. Kent denied striking the car, however, telling police he never operated the large snow blower. 

The day after the accident, police compared the front of the snow blower, which is the size of a small tractor, to the damage on the car. It appeared to be a match, they said, with an officer writing in the report, “It was determined that vehicle one [the snow blower] was the vehicle that struck vehicle two.” Mr. Kent’s denial about having been involved was also recorded in the report, which concludes, “There were no witnesses to this incident.” 

Mr. Nowicki has placed a large sign on top of his badly damaged car, asking anyone who saw what happened to call him at 917-328-8557.

East Hampton

The gas lines to two Whooping Hollow Road residences were shut off sometime between Jan. 3 and Jan. 8. A subcontractor, Rolando Merchan, arrived at the houses on the morning of Jan. 8 and noticed the gas had been shut off and the temperature inside had dropped from 70 to 33 degrees. The main contractor for the houses, which are in the final stages of construction, James Gherardi, told police he had just taken over the job. Police are investigating. 

East Hampton Village

Police were called to Rowdy Hall on Main Street on the evening of Jan. 10 by the manager. A 64-year-old woman with a residence on Fifth Avenue, as well as one in East Hampton, “was being rude,” the report reads, and the manager “wanted assistance having her leave without creating a scene.” The manager told police the woman had been a problem in the past, and “had become aggressive to the staff.” The manager had asked the woman to leave, and not to come back, but the unruly customer refused to leave her table. An officer spoke with the woman, telling her she needed to exit the restaurant or face arrest for trespassing. The woman agreed. Afterward, the manager filled out a trespass affidavit for the police to keep on file. The names of those involved were not released, because no charges were pressed.

A deer stuck in a fence outside an East Hollow Road house triggered a call to police by the homeowner Saturday morning. After police arrived, the homeowner was able to cut the fence, freeing the animal. 

A report of suspicious activity on Hither Lane brought a patrol officer to investigate Monday. A young man wearing shorts and a gray hoodie had climbed over the gated entrance. The man in the hoodie turned out to be a friend of the homeowner’s son. The son told police that the driveway gate would not open when he entered the code, and that his friend had climbed over the gate in order to open it from the inside. 

Montauk

An Old Montauk Highway resident told police on Jan.7 that her personal computer had been hacked that morning. She said she was on her computer when a warning message appeared on her screen referring to spyware. The message gave her a phone number to contact, claiming to be Microsoft technical support. After she shared information about one of her bank accounts, she told police that a forged electronic signature in her name was created and the individual on the other end hung up the phone. She immediately contacted the bank, canceled the transaction, and closed the account. She also turned the computer off, telling police she was going to take it to a computer specialist to be examined.

Northwest Woods

Police are just now reporting the theft of a red and white 13-foot Sonoma kayak from the town trustees’ racks on Hand’s Creek. Elizabeth Laytin valued the missing kayak at $300, and said she had not secured it to the rack. 

Springs

Two Fort Pond Boulevard residents woke up on the morning of Jan. 8 to find an unmarked package on the front step. When the package was opened, the contents appeared to be feces. Police are investigating.