Last week, Southold Town police — back to pen-and-paper note-taking after a ransomware attack sidelined the town’s servers — found themselves juggling an eclectic lineup of calls, beginning with a 2 a.m. crash in Cutchogue where the injured driver allegedly admitted to snorting a midnight “bump” of fentanyl after paramedics reportedly found a vial in his pocket. They also apprehended a Mattituck man, with the help of a K9 named Solo, suspected in some of the vehicle break-ins that have been plaguing the North Fork for weeks now.
Police also fielded calls about a man sleeping in Mitchell Park beside an open can of “Natty Daddy” at lunch time on Monday, a gas customer convinced he’d been overcharged (he hadn’t), and still more reports of items disappearing from unlocked cars. Police also dealt with an intoxicated bicyclist who called for help after a Tuesday morning crash in a supermarket parking lot, a handicapped-parking standoff outside a 7-Eleven and a storage-unit client evicted for allegedly sleeping in his rented space. The week continued with a Greenport apartment dweller who complaining his guest had trashed the place and helped himself to “milk and oatmeal” and a missing mailbox tied to an apparent squatting dispute in East Marion.
Dec. 1 – Derek Dittko, 40, of Manorville was arrested on drug possession charges following an early morning car crash in Cutchogue. Around 2:15 a.m., police received a call about a motor vehicle accident near Horseshoe Drive and Middle Road. Responding officers found Dittko lying on the ground next to his vehicle, having sustained injuries to his head and hip and complaining of severe pain, according to a police report. While inside an ambulance, a paramedic found a “vial of whitish-gray powder” in Dittko’s pants pocket, according to the report, which said the suspect “stated it was fentanyl and admitted [doing] ‘a bump’ around midnight.” Police also found a plastic bag containing 37 pills on the floor beneath the driver’s seat, which were initially identified as gabapentin — an anticonvulsant prescription medication meant to treat nerve pain and control seizures. Police said Dittko consented to a blood test at the hospital. Due to his injuries, he was released on a field appearance ticket and is due in court on Dec. 19.
Around 1:30 p.m., police received a report of a local man, who is known to them, sleeping in Mitchell Park in Greenport. Charles Tyler, 55, with no known address, was issued a village code violation ticket after police allegedly found an open 25-oz. can of Natty Daddy alcoholic beverage in his possession.
Around 5 p.m., a caller claimed to town police that he had been overcharged for gas at a station on Main Road in Mattituck. With police en route to the location, the man called back to say he had not, in fact, been overcharged. No further action was taken.
Around 8 p.m., a Greenport man contacted police to say that items were removed from his vehicle, parked at the Greenport Fire Department headquarters on Third Street, sometime between Nov. 20 and Nov. 24. Over the past month, police have received a rash of reports of items being stolen from unlocked vehicles across the North Fork.
Dec. 2 – Around 9:30 a.m., a Cutchogue man known to police called 911 from the parking lot of King Kullen in Cutchogue. He flagged down a responding officer to report that he had fallen off his bicycle and sustained injuries to his face and hands. The officer observed the man to be “intoxicated and incoherent.” He was transported to a local hospital and the bike was secured by police.
Shortly after noon, police were called to the parking lot of a 7-Eleven in Greenport to settle a dispute over a missing handicapped parking placard. According to a report, a 28-year-old Orient man “confronted” a Greenport West man, 34, about parking in a handicapped spot without displaying a handicapped parking placard. The Greenport West man told the Orient man to leave him alone. When the Orient man persisted, the Greenport West man called police. He told authorities he possesses a handicapped parking placard but forgot to put it on his dashboard prior to exiting the vehicle. Both men told police the incident was a verbal dispute only, and both subjects left the area without incident.
Dec. 4 – Around 9 a.m., a trespass notice was signed against Noe Pacheco, 40, a local man with a history of run-ins with police, after authorities were contacted by a Mattituck woman saying he was on the property of a former Catholic elementary school that closed in 2018 and was “acting strange.” According to a police report, Pacheco was “escorted to Mattituck, where he is currently residing in the woods off the south side of Old Sound Avenue.” In June, Pacheco was charged with alleged sexual assault after police said he grabbed the buttocks of two women in a CVS pharmacy in Mattituck. In April, Pacheco was charged with forcibly kissing a 13-year-old girl on her bicycle in front of the Handy Pantry in Mattituck.
Around 10 a.m., police were called to a self-storage facility on Hortons Lane in Southold for a report of an irate customer. According to an employee, a Riverhead man, 33, had paid in full for his unit but had been evicted “due to breach of contract” for allegedly sleeping in the unit overnight. The customer eventually gathered his belongings in the presence of police and called a taxi.
Scott Wilcox, 56, of Hampton Bays was arrested following a complaint by a Cox Neck Road resident in Mattituck, who told police a male subject had been trying to gain entry to vehicles in a driveway there. Police and a K-9 unit responded to canvass the area and located Wilcox “lying face down in the rear fenced yard” of a nearby residence. The homeowner signed a notice of trespass against Wilcox, who was escorted to police headquarters for processing. On Nov. 4, several residents on Cox Neck Lane told police someone had rummaged through several vehicles overnight and stole a credit card, a pair of Beats headphones and a prescription bottle of 800 mg ibuprofen. Video footage showed a middle-aged man, possibly with a goatee, wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt, a brown or camouflage hat, blue jeans and black sneakers, and carrying a gray bag or pillowcase. It was not immediately clear whether Wilcox is suspected in those incidents. For more than a month, unlocked cars throughout the North Fork have been entered and rummaged through, according to police reports.
Dec. 5 – Around 1 p.m., a resident at an apartment complex on North Road in Greenport West “who seemed to be under the influence” contacted police to report that a friend who had been staying at his apartment “has been trashing his apartment and possibly taking his milk and oatmeal.” The tenant told police his friend had “trashed things” in the apartment, including silverware, had scratched the floor and had “ruined the bottom of cookware and tinted the sprinkler system and fire alarms yellow.” He said his friend has a key to the apartment but “tried to break in.” The man was advised to “have a conversation” with his friend and call police back if the problems persist.
Around 2 p.m., an East Marion man contacted police to report that a mailbox has been missing from a Beach Court residence for several weeks, which may contain mail addressed to him and a friend, according to a police report. Authorities contacted the owner, who said he was the executor of the estate and had made several reports to state police about the two men, whom he said had been squatting at the location. He said he had not removed the mailbox but noticed it had been absent for a couple of months.
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.
