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On the Police Logs 05.12.22

Thu, 05/12/2022 - 16:33

Amagansett

Brian McCarthy found a mysterious "foaming chemical" on the shoulder of Montauk Highway on the afternoon of May 3. By the time the police arrived, Mr. McCarthy was gone, and the officers could not locate the spill.

A man walking toward Balsam Farms with a couple of golf clubs, "looking down driveways" on the morning of Mother's Day, aroused the suspicions of Melissa Bazar, who called the police. An officer found the man, who stated he was on his way to get flowers for his mother. His identification showed no outstanding warrants, and he was left to enjoy the rest of his walk.

East Hampton

Trucks were blocking Cove Hollow Road and she couldn't pass, Victoria Donovan told police on the morning of May 4. Officers spoke with a worker from Island Ready Mix, a cement supplier, who said they were pouring cement at a nearby residence. He moved both trucks to the side of the road.

Katlin Burks of Mulford Avenue in Northwest called on May 4 to say that a bus, possibly a county bus, had driven down her quiet road and turned onto Woodlot Lane, just missing her front lawn. She thought this was very strange at 10 p.m. in a neighborhood where buses do not operate. The bus was gone by the time police arrived.

Between 9:30 and 10:10 on the night of May 5, police recorded two complaints from different places about noise coming from the Clubhouse on Daniel's Hole Road. When officers arrived, at about 11, no music was heard, and a noise reading was lower than the 55-decibel nightly maximum for commercial establishments.

A "rancid smell from an unknown light-colored cloth" near the beach access on Mile Hill Road prompted Rita Plansky to call police on May 6. Officers found a decaying deer carcass at the location. 

East Hampton Village

Twice in a week, on May 2 and May 4, drivers called police to report the theft of their 2022 dump permits. Both vehicles were parked at the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter.

At 2 a.m. on May 5, officers found a 72-year-old man sleeping at the train station. He said he was fine, but had had trouble charging his phone. He would take the train to Hampton Bays in the morning, he said.

Montauk

A guest speaker at Gurney's Star Island Yacht Club, Gerald Lewis of North Carolina, found a bag containing his laptop and BMW car keys missing after he finished speaking on April 29. He'd been sitting facing an audience of about 150 guests, he told police, and the bag was against the wall next to where he was seated. He didn't notice it was gone until a couple of hours after his speech, he said. Police spoke with several employees, none of whom recalled seeing the bag.

Sag Harbor

A police officer on foot patrol spotted a dirt bike whizzing south down Madison Street on May 2, ignoring a couple of stop signs along the way. The bike was later found parked at Pierson High School, back by the maintenance equipment. There was no registration displayed, but police were able to figure out the owner, and contacted the boy's mother to let her know that such a bike was not to be operated on public roads.

Thomas McErlean was visiting a gravesite at Oakland Cemetery on the morning of May 4 when, he told police, he came upon a couple having sex in a black S.U.V. with "lots of beach stickers on the driver's-side rear window." This wasn't the first time he'd seen that vehicle, he said. He asked for increased police presence at the cemetery.

Steve Williams of Richards Drive reported two large Husky dogs running around the neighborhood unattended on Sunday afternoon. Police were able to contact the owner, who said he wasn't home and couldn't pick up his dogs. East Hampton Animal Control came and took them away.

Kristen Schenerman, a manager at Baron's Cove, called Sunday night to report that a highly intoxicated woman at the bar had accused a man of groping her. A nearby table of six men did not come to her defense, the manager said, after she yelled at the man and called him a "creep"; instead, they started to yell back at her. The men had all departed by the time officers arrived.

Allison Sugar called police to her Bay Street residence on Mother's Day after watching an elderly woman remove her front doormat. Officers found the woman walking a small dog, still holding the doormat. She said she'd found it in the road and believed it was being thrown away.

Springs

An Accabonac Road resident noticed too late that between February and last week, someone had been charging their Optimum bill on her bank account. Altogether, $3,817 was charged to her credit card. Police documented the report and advised her to contact all the credit agencies and her bank to let them know about the compromised card.

An employee of Power Equipment Plus, on Springs-Fireplace Road, stole $276.27 from the register on April 28, according to the owner of that business, Joe Morgano. He told police that the person had accepted $300 in cash for a lawnmower and trailer rental, but then wrote a false receipt for only $23.73. The employee quit the following day.

Wainscott

A night manager at Phoenix House, the substance use treatment center, reported on May 3 that a resident had been breaking the house rules and he wanted the man removed. Police arrived and told him they could not remove the resident; the manager should discuss the situation with his bosses. The resident then complained to the officers that the manager had taken his cellphone. The phone was taken away as a disciplinary action, said the manager. The officers told the two men to separate for the evening.

Police followed up on a May 4 call about a suspicious person walking near the Wainscott School. They found the man who'd been described sitting in a landscaping truck across the street. He told them he was working at a nearby residence and walked near the school to get better cellphone reception.

East Hampton Ambulance Department Gets County Nod

The Suffolk County Regional Emergency Services Council voted on March 12 to expand the operating territory of the East Hampton Village Ambulance Department to include the Northwest Fire Protection District and the East Hampton Water Supply Area. This came after a contentious public hearing at LTV Studios on Feb. 16.

Mar 21, 2024

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

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