A seaplane landed where it shouldn’t, a house cleaner tidied up the wrong home, a lawn ornament masqueraded as a distress signal, and a public urination investigation ended with a medical explanation. Add in abandoned kayaks, an adrift sailboat, a family camping on a Greenport beach, a phantom knife fight, a wandering shirtless man, an unattended car left running at the Orient Point ferry and an intoxicated dancer accused of hurling a racial slur, and Southold Town police had another week in which the unusual often overshadowed the routine.

July 27 – Around 8:30 a.m., police responded by land and sea to a report of a seaplane landing near Pipes Cove. An officer arriving by land observed the seaplane taking off, and got a tail number. Police used that to contact the owner of a Maine seaplane leasing company, who said that the company regularly charters flights to Sunset Beach on Shelter Island. The owner was advised that future flights must take off, land and conduct passenger transfers in state waters.

Around noon, police received a report of a man lying in the woods near Main Road and New Suffolk Ave. in Mattituck. A canvass of the area did not produce any day sleepers.

Around 4 p.m., police were called to Sound View Dunes Beach for a report of three abandoned kayaks – two blue and one green –  which were towed to police headquarters to be impounded.

Around 6 p.m., a Southold Town Police marine unit responded to a vessel near the Greenport jetty, which was hailing the Coast Guard, saying it couldn’t start its auxiliary engine. As the marine unit reached Fanning Point, the captain of the vessel in distress stated he was able to get the engine started, and that no further assistance was necessary.  

Around 6:45 p.m., a 28-year-old Greenport woman reported her Android tablet missing, saying she had left it in the possession of a 47-year-old Greenport man, who had departed for Florida with it. Police contacted the man, who told them he accidentally packed it and didn’t have contact information for the young woman. With the woman’s permission, police gave the man her address and contact information and he agreed to mail it back as soon as possible.

Around 7 p.m., a 69-year-old Cutchogue woman contacted police to report that she was in an ongoing dispute with her landlords over her rental agreement and she believes they shut off her second-floor electricity “after threats were made following a late rental payment.” She said she was also told she could no longer use the washing machine. Police interviewed the landlord, who denied shutting off the electricity. It was later determined that a circuit breaker in the basement had tripped, and was reset to restore power. Both the tenant and the landlords were advised that their dispute is a civil matter. The tenant told police she is actively looking for a new apartment, according to a police report.

Intoxicated dancer

Around 8:15 p.m., during a Dances in the Park concert in Mitchell Park, a 37-year-old Greenport West woman approached a patrol officer to report an incident between herself and another patron. The woman said that a 61-year-old Greenport woman was “intoxicated, dancing aggressively, and acting in an irate manner around her and her family,” before allegedly making a racial slur at the family. That prompted the younger woman to seek police assistance. A responding officer observed that the older woman “showed signs of clear intoxication.” She denied making a racial slur, according to a police report. After the two parties were separated, the allegedly intoxicated older woman ignored a police request to stay away from the other woman and reapproached her, leading to a second verbal dispute. The younger woman requested that the incident be documented.

Around 10:15 p.m., police received a report of a vehicle failing to maintain its lane, heading eastbound on Main Roads in Peconic. A responding officer located gray sedan in question and initiated a traffic stop. The driver, a 31-year-old Greenport West woman, explained that she “dropped her phone on the driver’s side floor under the dashboard and picked it up while operating the vehicle, causing her to swerve.” The driver showed no signs of impairment, but was issued a ticket for an expired inspection.

Around 11:30 p.m., police received a report of a vehicle striking a Flock camera near the corner of Main St. and Knapp Place in Greenport West. A responding officer observed tire tracks leading to the camera, and “significant damage to the camera, rendering it inoperable,” according to a police report. Police canvassed the area for security cameras, but did not locate any. A detective was notified, the scene was photographed, and an investigation is ongoing, according to the report.  

Boozy, late night 911 call

July 28 – Around 2:30 a.m., a Eugenes Road resident in Cutchogue called police about a potential car theft. A responding officer interviewed the caller, a 37-year-old man, who was “intoxicated and inconsistent with the events that took place,” according to a police report. He claimed that his friend’s vehicle got hit near the intersection of Moores Lane and Main Road by a red sedan, but he declined to provide the vehicle information about his friend’s car. He then told the officer he “wished only to report that the other vehicle involved in the incident was a red sedan with an unlicensed operator who was still in the area.” Police canvassed the area, looking for the red sedan, without success. The complainant was advised to “recontact STPD when he sobers up” to provide more information about the alleged incident.

Around 9 a.m., police received a report of a “man with a walker holding a sign in the roadway” along North Road in Southold. When an officer arrived on scene, the man was gone.

Around 11:30 a.m. police received a call from a 14-year-old Greenport West teenager, who told police he was walking along a sidewalk at an apartment complex on North Road when a 56-year-old man told him to “get out of the way” and asked if he wanted to “get into a fight.” The teenager told police he did not want any trouble and as such returned to his apartment. Police interviewed the older man, who gave a conflicting account, saying the “juveniles were cursing at him” and that the teenager “intentionally bumped him while walking on the sidewalk.” Both parties were advised to avoid contact with each other.

Around 6 p.m., a police marine unit responded to a request for assistance from the Shelter Island Police Department in locating “two elderly subjects on a boat, possibly in distress.” A Southold police marine unit observed the pair driving the boat to the dock at Sunset Beach. They did not appear to need assistance.

Shortly before 9 p.m., police were called to the grounds of a community theater in Matittuck, for a report of a man sleeping on the property. Police located a 65-year-old man with no known address, woke him up, and advised him that he could not sleep there. The man left the premises without incident.

A wild goose chase

Around 10:30 p.m., police were called to a residence on Riley Ave. in Mattituck, for a report of “a strobe light across James Creek” that had been “going on and off for about an hour.” Investigating officers went to the other side of the creek and determined the cause to be a “geese deterrant lawn ornament.”

July 29 – Around 9 a.m., police responded by land and sea to the waters off Rabbit Lane in East Marion, for a report of a sailboat adrift and heading towards several large vessels outside Orient Harbor. A marine unit officer secured the sailboat and towed it Hallock Bay, where it was temporarily secured to a green channel marking piling. The vessel, which appeared to be a 1965 Preston sailboat, according to a report, had no registration numbers of hull identification number. The boat’s owner, a 60-year-old East Marion man, responded – telling officers he no longer maintained a local commercial towing membership, and would handle the vessel privately, and sailed the boat back to its mooring, off his residence.

Around noon, police received a report of someone trying to gain entry into one of the units at a landscaping company in Cutchogue. Video surveillance reviewed by police showed “subjects attempting to gain access to several vehicles in the parking lot,” according to a report. An investigation is ongoing.

Around 3:30 p.m., a 72-year-old Southold woman turned over a gray metal ring she had found on Main Road to police, who invoiced the jewelry and put it in the property room.

Around 6 p.m., police responded to Peconic Bay Blvd. in Mattituck for a report of a “woman in a white van not paying attention to her children swimming at the beach.” Police canvassed the area but could not locate the woman in question.

Urine trouble!

Around 8 p.m., police received an anonymous report of someone urinating behind a vehicle at Bailie Beach in Mattituck, and then driving away. Police identified the owner of the car and went to his residence to interview him. There they found his ex-girlfriend, who said he wasn’t home but gave police his cell phone number. They called the car owner, a 23-year-old Cutchogue man, who acknowledged the incident, but said that it was his friend, another 23-year-old Cutchogue man, who did the peeing. He handed the phone to the urinator, who told police that “due to a medical problem he could not hold in his urine and that he was attempting to urinate in a bottle.” Police advised the young man not to urinate in public. No further action was taken, according to a report.

Around 10:30 p.m., police received an anonymous report of a “fight involving knives” in the Adams St. parking lots in Greenport. Responding officers interviewed a group of five young people from the North Fork, ranging in age from 17 to 25. The group told police they were standing in the parking lot when a white Mercedes SUV drove past them, and “heated words were exchanged” between the group in the parking lot and the occupants in the vehicle. The parking lot group told police the Mercedes “continued to drive around the parking lot several times” before leaving the area. Police located the vehicle, and interviewed the occupants. An 18-year-old East Marion man “denied any involvement in the incident and stated that he did not know what [the officer] was referring to,” according to a police report – which noted that “further investigation” determined that the East Marion man was the anonymous 911 caller. Both parties were advised to cease contact with each other. No evidence was developed to substantiate that a crime had been committed.

July 30 – Police received an anonymous complaint of “subjects putting up tents” at Fifth St. Beach in Greenport. Responding officers found a teenager sleeping in a tent on the beach, and his mother sleeping in a car nearby. According to a report, the mother told police “they are homeless” and that the teenager sleeps in the tent because it’s more comfortable than the vehicle. The family was advised that overnight camping is prohibited at the beach, and provided with information about local assistance programs and shelters on the North Fork. The mother declined any further assistance, according to a report.

Around 10:30 a.m., police received a license plate reader hit for a vehicle driving near Marratooka Lane in Mattituck with a suspended registration. After initiating a traffic stop, police determined that the driver, a 38-year-old Cutchogue woman, was driving without a valid license, no insurance and a suspended registration. Her car was towed and she was issued multiple summonses.

Around 4 p.m., police received a call about a FedEx truck “traveling westbound on Middle Road” in Cutchogue and “speeding and cutting off other vehicles, while failing to maintain its lane.” Police canvassed the area looking for the truck without success.

A clean break-in

Around 10 p.m., police received a call from a second homeowner, who said that he observed three unknown females enter his home on Deep Hole Drive in Mattituck earlier that day through a surveillance camera. The homeowner presented police with a picture of a note left in the home, which said, “My name is Nora. I am cleaning your house. Please call my number … thank you.” The homeowner said he had not sought any cleaning service and wasn’t comfortable making contact with the mysterious “Nora” at the number provided. Police called the number and spoke to Nora, an East Hampton North woman, who said she and her two co-workers had accidentally been given the wrong address by her boss to perform cleaning services, and had already finished the job when they learned they had the wrong house, “which is why she left the note.” The woman told police the house was unlocked when she and her co-workers entered. Police conveyed this information to the homeowner, who said a contractor doing construction on the house did not lock the door when his crew left. He said he was satisfied with the police investigation and requested no further assistance – meaning somewhere in Mattituck, perhaps on Deep Hole Drive itself, there is a house that’s gone uncleaned in the confusion.

July 31 – Around 1 p.m., a Southold woman, 88, reported being the victim of a phone scam. According to a police report, she said she received a call from someone claiming to be from Apple, and informing her that her phone had been hacked. The woman gave the caller the last four digits of her social security number and told her how much money she had in her IRA account. At that point, she was transferred to what she was told was an FTC officer, who stated that he was going to transfer $6,000 from her IRA account. At that point, the woman realized it was a scam and hung up the phone. She contacted her bank, which put a hold on the account. Police provided the woman with identity theft paperwork.

Around 2:30 p.m., police were contacted with a report that there was a vehicle that was left running and unattended at the Orient Point ferry terminal. Responding officers contacted the listed owner of the vehicle, who told them the vehicle “was left running [by] accident and they are on the ferry.” He requested the officer turn off the vehicle and secure it, and his request was granted, according to a report.

Around 11 p.m., a Greenport man reported that a man wearing a white shirt and white shoes was “laying in the grass” on First St. in Greenport. Responding officers found a 47-year-old Greenport West man, who “appeared to be intoxicated and was observed to have swelling and a laceration just above his left eye,” according to a police report. The man “did not elaborate on what caused same,” according to the report, refused medical assistance and “stated he just wanted to go home.” An officer escorted the man home without incident.

Topless and ‘agitated’

Aug. 1 – Around 5 a.m., police received an anonymous report that man “with no shirt on, [who] seemed agitated” while walking north on Depot Lane towards Route 48. Responding officers located the man, 33, of Cutchogue, who told them he was walking back home from 7-Eleven in Cutchogue and “was okay.”

Around 7 a.m., police responded to a report of a vehicle “driving erratically” on North Road before turning into San Simeon. Police contacted the vehicle owner, who “apologized, stating that she was late for work.”

Around 8 a.m., police responded to a report of gunshots on Nassau Point Road in Cutchogue. They canvassed the area with negative results.

‘Check’ this out!

Around 2 p.m. police responded to a business on Main Road in Cutchogue for a report of a dispute. A 37-year-old Cutchogue man told responding officers that he quit working for the establishment but his boss was refusing to give him his last check. The check was issued while police were on scene, but the former employee insisted he was still owed another $100. The manager said he would issue a $100 check once the former employee submitted an invoice. Both parties were satisfied, according to a police report. The following day – in a twist right out of a movie script – the ex-employee flagged down a patrol car to report that the check he had been issued in the presence of police the day before — had not been signed. Police contacted staff at the business, who told them it was an ”oversight,” and that the check would be signed.

Around 5 p.m., an Orient man reported to police that sometime between July 30 and Aug. 1, his bicycle was stolen from him Main Road home. An investigation is ongoing.

Around 5:15 p.m., police received a report of a person in a wheelchair “sitting in the roadway” in Greenport. Police located such a person sitting on East Front St. The 49-year-old Patchogue man told police “he was hot and needed to sit in the shade.” He was advised that it is not safe to do so, as he was sitting in an active roadway. The man “understood and left the area,” according to a police report.

Around 8:30 p.m., police were called to a location on Queen St. for a report of an intoxicated guest who was playing loud music and being confrontational with other guests. Due to the guest’s level of intoxication, the manager of the establishment agreed to allow the man, 55, of Holyoke, MA., to stay until morning.

Aug. 2 – Around 1:15 p.m., a 25-year-old Wading River woman reported to police that she had been followed from Walgreens to a Chase bank and then to the beach on Peconic Bay Blvd. in Mattituck. Police interviewed a 42-year-old Cutchogue man, who denied following anyone and stated that he “was stopping by the beach after church.”

Around 1:30 p.m., police received a report of an individual who appeared to be living in an encampment in the woods off Silvermere Road in Greenport West. Responding officers located the encampment, which was unoccupied at the time, according to a police report.

All individuals named in police reports are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law. Charges may be reduced, dismissed or result in an acquittal.