Crash, Then Chain Reaction

East Hampton Village police investigating a reported hit-and-run incident in the Stop and Shop parking lot off Newtown Lane on Friday were led to a private house converted into an apartment building on property behind the Race Lane restaurant.

There, after interviewing Kimberly Pulgarin, who was charged with leaving the scene of an accident and driving without a license, police called for village code enforcement officers. Following a brief investigation, the building’s leaseholder, Jay Plumeri, was written up for six violations, two per apartment, for lacking smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors, Chief Gerard Larsen said Tuesday.

According to the police, Ms. Pulgarin was backing a 2003 Chevrolet minivan out of a parking spot in the supermarket lot when she accidentally hit the gas pedal instead of the brake. The minivan struck a parked 2000 Honda with enough force that it slid sideways and hit a third parked car, a 1999 Toyota Suburban. Ms. Pulgarin then threw her car into forward, sideswiping a 2000 Volkswagen that was entering the lot as she exited, and drove off.

Her minivan suffered front, side, and rear end damage. A witness dialed 911 to report what he called “a horror scene,” but not before he took a photograph of the departing vehicle’s license plate.

Within minutes, police located the damaged car outside 31 Race Lane, a restaurant with a house behind it, and began knocking on doors in the house, searching for the driver. The first door they knocked on led to an 225-square-foot single-room apartment in which four people were living, Ms. Pulgarin among them. “I panicked and left because I do not have a driver’s license,” she told them.

The code enforcement officer interviewed tenants in three of the four apartments, and was told that none of them had the required detectors. According to Chief Larsen, detectors were installed shortly after the citations were issued. Kenneth Collum, a code enforcement officer who is also a village fire marshal, said yesterday that the house does not appear to have a certificate of occupancy.

Mr. Plumeri will be arraigned in East Hampton Town Justice Court at a future date. The village is trying to determine the legality of the apartment units, Mr. Collum said, and who set them up. Leif Hope of Sag Harbor is the owner of the building.

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An earlier version of this story misstated the size of Ms. Pulgarin's apartment.