Amagansett
A man sitting in a car without license plates on Oak Lane, around dinnertime on Feb. 14, brought a phone call to police to come investigate. They found 32-year-old Daniel Miller in his black Honda, who told them he’d pulled over on his way to the nearby Gulf station to take a phone call. He was having difficulty getting the title for the car, be said, and hadn’t been able to register it. Officers had him lock the car and made arrangements for it to be towed the next day. They drove him to the gas station.
Gregory Sherry called on the morning of Feb. 22 to tell police he was watching an unknown vehicle in his driveway, on Holly Place, through his Ring camera. Officers found a black BMW, occupied by Michael Longo, in the driveway. Mr. Longo, a real estate agent, said he was there because of a house inspection for the buyers he was representing. The inspector, however, had canceled at the last minute. Police called Mr. Sherry through the Ring camera and he confirmed to them that the house was on the market and that the information provided by Mr. Longo was accurate.
East Hampton
On Feb. 16, John Palladino of Northwest Harbor found an arrow embedded in a tree on his property. He did not know how long it had been there. Police, finding no hunters or mischief in the area, surmised it had come from a crossbow, and confiscated it for destruction.
A mysterious cord of wood appeared at Bonnie Pizzorino’s house near the high school on Feb. 17. Ms. Pizzorino had ordered wood from Joe Benanti, and agreed to pay him $400 to have it delivered. Wood had indeed been delivered the day before, but she wasn’t home at the time, and her husband paid two men $350 for the delivery. Ms. Pizzorino called Mr. Benanti and mentioned the discount, but he said he hadn’t yet delivered the wood, and he didn’t know who had. She wanted the matter documented, but there was nothing to be done.
Nimit Sabhalwal saw a night-riding bicyclist on Hand’s Creek Road on Feb. 18. He called police to say it was “odd,” and that in five years of spending weekends in East Hampton, he’d never seen anyone riding a bike at night. There was no sign of the bike rider by the time police arrived.
On Feb. 23, Steve Love, 39, a former tenant on Railroad Avenue, told police his car had gone missing. He’d moved out early in the month, he said, but had an agreement with the house’s new owner to leave his car there for a week. It was gone when he returned. A neighbor, Kristen Steele, told police she’d seen a white Ford pickup on the site; the driver told her he was there to “clean it up.” Three days later, she saw an “out-of-town” tow truck removing the car. The house’s new owner, Jeff Safi, told police he didn’t know about the tow truck but suggested they talk to his co-owner, Nathan Dhanessur. Meantime, police were able to find the man in the white Ford pickup, Michael Conti, who told them he’d been hired by a company known as Alti Source to clean the property. Alti Source denied any knowledge of the tow truck, and Mr. Dhanessur said that not only did he not hire a tow truck, but that neither he nor Mr. Safi had hired Mr. Conti or Alti Source.
East Hampton Village
A tailgating, erratically driven white van prompted Adam Calderon to call police on the afternoon of Feb. 17. Police located the van near Buell Lane with an “inadequate passenger brake light,” which was enough cause to pull the van over. They spoke with the driver and issued a warning.
A Toilsome Lane man reported a threatening phone call on the morning of Feb. 21. The caller said the man’s son had stolen items from him, and that “he knew where he lived.” The man wanted the incident on record.
Two vehicles left in the Red Horse Market parking lot for an extended period of time caused a plea to police on Feb. 21 to have them removed. Officers were able to contact the owners of both vehicles and told them to move their cars as soon as possible.
On the morning of Feb. 21, a Lily Pond Lane resident reported hearing “a knocking sound” on the windows the night before. When the family woke, they found a broken second-floor storm window on the main house and a small rock on the roof, and called police to report a possible burglary attempt. Detectives photographed the damage and continue to investigate.
Sag Harbor
A tractor-trailer stopped traffic on Route 114 the morning of Feb. 24 when the cover securing its load detached, creating a dangerous situation. The driver had gotten out of the vehicle to try to reattach it, leaving the truck blocking a lane of traffic. Police helped with traffic control and got the cover back on.
Andrew Poster, the owner of White’s Apothecary, called police on Feb. 26 to file a trespass complaint against a female shopper. She had been told to not enter the White’s in East Hampton, having been seen there taking items without paying for them. Police reached her by phone and warned her not to enter the Sag Harbor store again, on pain of being arrested for trespassing.
A man driving a blue vehicle in the Redwood section of the village, in the middle of the day on Feb. 26, prompted two calls from residents. The first caller described a car “just driving around” the neighborhood, with no apparent purpose. Police found and spoke with the driver, who showed them documentation that he was a process server, and was waiting to serve someone with a subpoena. A second call came in about 15 minutes later from a woman who said she felt she was being followed by the same car.
Lisa Witschi was pulling into a parking spot by the Apple Bank on the afternoon of Feb. 27 when a black Range Rover, which had already passed the spot, tried backing in. There was a classic parking-spot standoff before the Range Rover sped away, though not before its female driver threatened to damage Ms. Witschi’s car. Surprisingly, police were unable to find a black Range Rover in the village.
Springs
Geoff Kuzara of Springs-Fireplace Road, an artist, grew suspicious on Valentine’s Day when he received an email offering to pay him $8,000 for work priced at $3,000. Police advised him not to reply to the email and to stick with people willing to pay market value.
Patricio Delgado called police just before sunrise on Feb. 19 to say a man had walked up his driveway and entered his car. A few years ago, he said, $3,000 was stolen from his car, and he thinks this might have been the same person.
An apparent “ring and run” was caught by a Ring camera in Springs the night of Feb. 21. Gary Sorrentino of Talmage Farm Lane told police that “an adult and a child” had walked onto his front porch, rung the doorbell, and then fled into nearby woods. Police canvassed the area but were unable to locate the ringers. An hour later, the two were back, and managed another successful ring-and-run. This time police hung out for an hour but did not find the pair.
