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On the Police Logs 05.20.21

Thu, 05/20/2021 - 09:13

Amagansett

Graffiti at a Waters Edge overlook was reported on May 2 when it appeared the "Barnes Landing Residents Only" sign had been spray-painted and some no-parking posts had been unearthed and removed. Presumably, according to a cell phone photo, the occupants of a vehicle parked near the sign at the time were responsible, police said.

East Hampton

A Barclay Court resident claimed on May 6 that she was the victim of identity theft on account of a $1,000 cash withdrawal from her account in Philadelphia and about $18,000 in wire transfers that were attempted with a debit card in her name, which she told police she had not sought.

East Hampton Village

"Three images of the male genitalia were spray-painted on either end of the fence" at 7 North Main Street on May 10, village police reported. The illustrations were accompanied by three names tagged on the cement in front of the fence. The village Public Works Department was to have cleaned up the mess.

At about 9:30 that evening, when an officer pulled over an erratic driver at the Montauk Highway and Georgica Road ExxonMobil gas station, the driver stated she had been "tired from driving 20 hours." Police deemed her unfit to drive home to Osborne Lane and took her there themselves.

A man told police that he had approached a driver parked in the fire safety zone of the lot at 68 Newtown Lane on the afternoon of May 11. The driver did not wish to hear the news about his parking spot of choice and reportedly told the man to "mind his business" and threatened to slap him in the head.

A 52-year-old East Hampton woman who was shopping at Citarella in the village on Friday evening told police she "felt discriminated against by the employees," a police report said. The woman, who is Asian, claimed the employees were "purposefully declining her method of payment, forcing her to pay with cash." According to the report, the shopper also told police she felt "the employees were speaking another language in order to speak ill" of her.

Montauk

On Friday evening at 6 p.m., East Hampton Town police received a call about an intoxicated man "in an agitated state" at the Montauk IGA. An officer saw him walk out of the store and lean against the north wall of the building. As the officer approached the man, "who was highly intoxicated, a wheel of Laughing Cow cheese" — valued at $4 — "was observed to fall out of the bottom of his left pant leg," according to a police report. The man was said to have bent down to tuck the cheese back inside. An employee informed police that he had just caught the man attempting to steal a $6 package of hot dogs, but the store successfully recovered it. When confronted, the man produced the cheese, but also an additional package of hot dogs that he had "secreted" on his person, though the report withheld the detail of exactly where it had been hidden. The store's management did not press charges, but if the alleged shoplifter tries to enter the IGA again, police said he will be arrested.

Sag Harbor

Early in the morning on May 10, a man walking along Main Street approached an officer and asked him about "a safe place he could spend the night that was not a psych ward." The officer directed him toward hotels in the area.

That afternoon, an employee of the SagTown Coffee shop reported a suspicious male, identified only as "Christopher," who she claimed would come into the store to sit near her and stare for hours at a time. She was advised to call police when next this happened.

When a man was flagged last Thursday morning for "looking into cars" in the parking lot at Rose and Bridge streets, he explained to police that he was a local paparazzo, merely ducking behind the vehicles whilst trying to take photos of the film director Steven Spielberg at the back of the Sag Harbor Cinema.

Last Thursday evening, a property on Glover Street had flames coming up from the ground on account of a buried gas line that a worker struck while using machinery to do a well test for potential buyers of the house. The fire department controlled the situation until National Grid shut off the line.

Around midnight last Thursday, an officer confronted a group of teens in a parked car on Main Street. They two 12-packs of White Claw Hard Seltzer in the backseat, one open, the other not, police said.

According to a police report, a dispute continues between Madison Street neighbors, having begun last month when one neighbor allegedly tried to force her way through the other's front door and reportedly sustained injuries after she got pushed out. On Friday at 5:30 p.m., the first neighbor reportedly yelled at the second, "You broke my knee, I'm gonna take you to court!"

A likely harbinger of summer transpired on Saturday night: four police reports related to an incident at Murf's Backstreet Tavern in which a man refused the bouncer's warning to wear his mask and then shoved the bouncer for good measure. A physical struggle ensued, during which a woman identified only as "Karen" attempted to intervene and sustained a blow to her nose. Soon after, police were called to a Main Street property for a report of loud banging, which eventually stopped, but it just so happened to be the residence of the man removed from Murf's.

Springs

A man entered the Springs General Store on May 7 in the early afternoon and upon returning to his car 10 minutes later, found his black folder was missing from the front seat. He told police that on his way into the store, he noticed a former employee sitting on the general store porch, who looked at him and his vehicle. The ex-employee was gone when the man came back outside. Police spoke to the supposed folder thief, who said he did not recognize or remember the complainant, nor did he see anything stolen or take anything from the car, police said. The former folder owner ultimately changed his bank account number.

On the Police Logs 03.21.24

A 37-year-old Montauk man attempted to make a fire in a barrel at the Montauk Skate Park to "grill some burgers while he and friends skated" on the afternoon of March 13. Someone called the police, who told the man it was against the rules. He apologized and put the fire out.

Mar 21, 2024

Policing East Hampton in 2023: A Look at the Statistics

In 2023, for 911 calls classified as "highest priority," the East Hampton Town Police Department's average response time was 5 minutes, 38 seconds. Officers made 163 drunken-driving arrests, assisted on 2,530 medical calls and nearly 1,800 fire-related emergencies, and logged 12 "use of force" incidents over the 12-month period. Those were just a few of the statistics presented by Chief Michael Sarlo to the East Hampton Town Board last week, capping off a year of protecting 70 square miles from Wainscott to Montauk.

Mar 21, 2024

Sexual Assault Investigation

A 29-year-old East Hampton woman went to police headquarters on March 4 to report being the victim of sexual assault, stemming from an incident on Feb. 23 at a house in town.

Mar 13, 2024

On the Police Logs 03.14.24

Police were called Friday afternoon to investigate a report that people were camping illegally in the Grace Estate Preserve. They came upon three men from Nassau County who’d put up a tent and built a campfire. Police told them to put out the fire, then issued a ticket for open burning and directed them to leave immediately.

Mar 14, 2024

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