A $95 dine-and-dash at a Cutchogue winery, a dating-app encounter that ended in a catfishing complaint, firecrackers tossed from a moving BMW and a Greenport man advised by police to tighten the drawstring on his sagging sweatpants were among the more colorful calls that kept Southold Town police busy this week. Officers also sorted out dueling claims over who was following whom in a dustup on Front Street, searched for an erratic driver who appeared to be asleep at the wheel and gave a barefoot man a ride home from Route 48. Police also responded to a report of a fire in a Cutchogue farm field caused by fireworks, and to a fight between two “highly intoxicated” young men in the Adams St. parking lots in Greenport. Southold police also responded to at least 10 incidents of accidental 911 calls last week – with excuses ranging from a landscaper accidentally dialing 911 while working to parents who blamed the emergency calls on their children.
Aug. 3 – Shortly before 1 a.m., police responded to a restaurant in Sterlington Commons in Greenport, for a report of a dispute. A 38-year-old Greenport West man told police he was eating dinner at the restaurant when a 26-year-old Greenport West man “approached him and made statements about wanting to fight him.” The older man told police he “did not know why [the younger man] wanted to fight him.” According to a police report, no physical altercation ensued, but the 38-year-old wanted the incident documented.
Around 8 a.m., police were called to Sandy Beach in Greenport, for a report of a swimmer and a kayaker in the water and possibly in distress. A marine unit dispatched to the scene found a 34-year-old East Hampton man and a 32-year-old Springs woman on the beach. The pair, which were wearing wetsuits and life jackets, told police they were the only ones in the water and that they were never in distress.
Around 1 p.m., an Orient woman arrived at police headquarters with a piece of property – unidentified in the police report – that she had found at Truman’s Beach. The woman attempted to contact the owner of the property – a 21-year-old Ft. Salonga man – via Facebook, without success. Police inventoried the property and will attempt to make contact with the owner, according to a report.
Around 2:30 p.m., a police marine unit responded to a report of a personal watercraft that had broken free from its mooring and washed ashore in Cutchogue. Police contacted the watercraft’s owner, who was in New Jersey, but said he would send someone to retrieve the craft.
No ifs, ands or butts
Around 3 p.m., police received a report of a shirtless man in black pants who “appeared to be exposing himself” near Main St. and First St. in Greenport. Police responded and interviewed three local people, well-known to police, including a 24-year-old Greenport man – who denied he was exposing himself and claimed that “he was attempting to pull up his sweatpants, which were loose and hanging low.” The young man was advised to “tighten the drawstring on his sweatpants and to wear proper fitting pants.” The man apologized to police, according to a report, and promised to “ensure that his pants were secured more tightly.” The complainant, a Southold man, was advised of the situation and was satisfied with the outcome.
Adams St. violence
Around 5 p.m., fresh trouble erupted in the Adams St. parking lots in Greenport, after police received a report of men fighting near the corner of Adams St. and Main St. Responding officers located a 24-year-old Greenport man and a 26-year-old Greenport West man, both “highly intoxicated” and “uncooperative,” according to a police report. The younger man had a minor laceration below his right eye and was bleeding from his bottom lip. The other man was observed to have lacerations across his neck. The younger man told police the other man had “struck him with a closed fist to the right eye,” while the other man refused to explain his injuries, claimed the two men are “friends” and said they were just “playing around and it escalated into a physical altercation.” The younger man claimed he didn’t know his assailant. Both refused medical attention and were “inconsistent in their stories,” the report said.
Sip and skip
Aug. 4 – Around 11 a.m., police received a theft of services complaint from a Main Road winery in Cutchogue. Police interviewed the winery’s general manager, who said that a man and a woman ordered and consumed two wine flights and a cheese plate, and then skipped out on their $95.00 bill. According to a police report, the subjects were a man and a woman, both wearing black sunglasses, who departed in a black suburban Chevrolet. Security camera footage did not catch the Chevy’s license plate, but the general manager wanted the incident documented.
Around noon, police responded to Captain Kidd Drive in Mattituck, for a report of two men soliciting asphalt sales in the area. Police located two men, one from Flanders and the other from Mattituck, who told them they were only soliciting at past customers houses and were “not going to every house.” They were advised that they need a Southold town permit to solicit. They left the area without incident.
Around 1 p.m., police responded to Naugles Drive in Mattituck, following four 911 call hang ups. Police canvassed the area, interviewed homeowners, but could not locate anyone in distress or anyone who had seen some in the area who may have been in distress.
Around 2: 15 p.m., a police marine unit responded to a dock off a waterfront restaurant at the end of Main Road in Greenport. They interviewed a West Palm Beach man who told them a large boat wake came into the dock and “caused his dinghy to go under the swim platform of the motor yacht that he captains.” Responding officers were unable to locate any damage “other than a small paint chip to the backside port corner of the swim platform.” The captain wished to have the incident documented, according to a report.
Catch and release
Around 3 p.m., police received a report from a 45-year-old Southold man who told them he was “catfished” by a woman from Southold named Megan. He said he met “Megan” on a dating app and agreed to meet her in front a of a restaurant in the Feather Hill shopping complex. He told police he only realized he was “catfished” when he met the woman in front of the restaurant, “and did not want to continue to talking to her.” He said the woman attempted to contact him through two phone numbers, both of which he has since blocked. He said he works at a restaurant in Southold and that the woman had shown up at his place of employment the previous Friday and Saturday to “sit at the bar as a paying customer.” He told police that his manager “did not mind her being there because she wasn’t causing a disturbance,” but that he “wanted no involvement with her.” He was advised to continue to avoid “Megan.”
Around 7 p.m., a patrol car was flagged down on Middle Road in Mattituck, and a woman reported seeing a “large white truck driving erratically” with a “driver [that] appeared to be asleep at the wheel.” During the interview, the woman pointed to a white truck making a U turn on Middle Road. The officer initiated a traffic stop, and determined it was the wrong truck. Police canvassed the area for the white truck in question, without success.
Around 7:30 p.m., police received a report of a black BMW sedan with Connecticut plates deriving on Main Road in Southold and “throwing firecrackers out the window.” Police canvassed the area for the BMW in question, without success.
Around 10 p.m., police received a report of several bags of clothes that were left in front of a Front St. business in Greenport. A responding officer recognized that some of the bags belonged to a 64-year-old Shelter Island woman. Police located her and she told them that she had “placed her bags in front of the [business] for a moment and was going to return to retrieve” them.
Aug. 5 – Around noon, police received a report of a “low-flying helicopter” near Cedar Beach in Southold. Police responded and identified the helicopter as being in the area for tick and bug spraying.
Around 12:30, police received a report of a man soliciting bug spray services near Woodside Lane and White Eagle Drive in Laurel. Police located the man, who told them he was “not soliciting new customers” and “only advising his current customers [that his company] would be spraying in the area.” According to police, he was also advising neighbors of his customers of the spraying. He was advised not to solicit new customers, because his company does not have a town permit to solicit. Around 7 p.m., police received a similar complaint about someone from the same company soliciting near Ole Jule Lane in Mattituck. Police tracked the man down, and he denied soliciting customers without a permit, but agreed to leave the area.
Around 3:15 p.m., police responded to Camp Mineola Road in Mattituck after someone whose phone was pinging near there “dial[ed] 911 three times with no response.” An officer reached the caller by phone, who said the incident was an accident, but hung up when asked for his name, and wouldn’t answer further calls.
‘A very bad dream’
Aug. 6 – Around 7 a.m., a teenager contacted police from a deli on Middle Road to report “feeling scared to be around her friend.” She said she was waiting for her friend – a 30-year-old Hauppauge man – to arrive at a home on Central Drive, and the two were going to go dog sit. While waiting, she “got an uneasy feeling about having to be around [the Hauppauge man] alone and decided to walk to [a deli] and call the police.” She told police she “developed this fear after having ‘a very bad dream’ that [the Hauppauge man] was planning to do something harmful to her.” She said he had never physically put his hands on her in the past, nor ever made her feel unsafe before. The teenager also confirmed that the two were not in any kind of romantic relationship, but were just friends. Police went to the Central Drive location and interviewed the man. He said he had no plans to “do anything harmful” to the teen, and stated that he invited her to join him dog sitting because he thought she “wanted to spend some time out of the house” while her mother was in the hospital. He said he has known the teenager and her family for many years, but that he respects her wishes to not be in contact with him. Police also interviewed the teenager’s brother and mother, who confirmed that they have known the Hauppauge man “for some time but are hopeful [the teen] will not be in contact with [him], as they feel he forces her to join him in his plans. The teenager drove home with her brother, according to a police report.
Around 11 a.m., a patrol officer observed a driver tailgating the vehicle in front of him and “drastically driving on the shoulder of the road,” while not wearing a seatbelt, according to a police report. The officer initiated a traffic stop and interviewed the driver, who was “observed to be bleeding from the top of his head.” The driver “could not say where he was coming from or how he injured his head,” but denied taking any drugs or medications. He was transported by Greenport firefighters to a local hospital for evaluation.
Around 11:30 a.m., a Rosenburg Road resident in East Marion reported that, on July 3, he had observed through his Ring camera four individuals “come into his backyard and take pictures of the water and his residence.” Then, on July 19, a “female was walking on the private road with a beach chair and told him he had a nice house.” The homeowner didn’t recognize the woman, and wanted the incidents documented.
Around 2 p.m., a detective on patrol noticed that a Flock camera on North Road in Greenport West had red paint on it and the electric wires were pulled out. An investigation is ongoing.
Dog day afternoon
Around 3:15 p.m., police were called to a Third St. restaurant in Greenport, for a report of a customer causing a disturbance. A restaurant employee told authorities that a customer was refusing to leave the premises. According to the employee, the customer “became aggressive when she confronted him about his dog, which was unleashed, running around and barking at other customers.” She then asked him to leave the restaurant and he refused, according to a police report. Officers interviewed the customer, who stated that he lives in Casablanca, Morocco, does not remember his exact home address” and is staying at a local Greenport hotel. He was escorted off the property without incident.
Fishers Island larceny
Around 4:15 p.m., police responded to an arts gallery on Equestrian Ave. on Fishers Island, for a larceny report. A jewelry vendor at the store told police three items, a necklace and two pairs of earrings, were stolen from her jewelry collection, and provided pictures of the items. While there were no surveillance cameras in the immediate area, the vendor told police she suspected the culprit was a woman, between 50 and 60, wearing a white outfit with a white shirt that had red accented patterns on it. Police spoke to a ferry manager and requested surveillance footage of a ferry that departed the island that day to see if they could locate the woman in question. An investigation is ongoing.
Around 8:30 p.m., a teenager reported to police that he was walking on Front St. in Greenport when a man “suspiciously began following him and his friends for no reason and then entered a bar in the area…” The man was later identified as a 35-year-old Saint Paul, MN man, who had a different story to tell. According to the Minnesota man, the teenager and his friends “started heckling and yelling at [him], for no reason, while making crude comments.” He alleged that the teen who complained had been following him. With no corroborating witnesses or information to identify who initiated the incident, both parties were advised to avoid each other, and each left on foot without incident.
Aug. 7 – Around 3 p.m., police and Southold firefighters responded to a restaurant on Main Road in Southold, following a report of a fire caused by a deep fryer. Restaurant employees were able to extinguish the fire on their own. Southold firefighters determined that the fire was caused by an electrical failure, according to a police report.
Textual harrassment
Around 8 p.m., police were called to a home in Mattituck, where a homeowner told police his wife had received “a disturbing text” from an ex-neighbor the day prior, and received another one that day, which stated, according to a report, “I would lovely if you were working tonight cause I’m just about pulling to Riverhead.” Police advised the couple to block the neighbor’s number, and extra patrols were requested for the area.
Around 10:30 p.m., police were called to Main Bayview Road and Baywater Ave. in Southold, for an anonymous report that two unknown vehicles were involved in a motor vehicle accident and “did not wish to file a report.” The anonymous caller believes one of the drivers was intoxicated. Police, who observed a small amount of debris in the roadway, canvassed the area for the vehicles without success.
‘Gangster’ without a cause
Aug. 8 – Around 9:30 a.m., police received a call from a 55-year-old Greenport woman, who told police she was on Third St. with a local man – well-known to police, with no known address – when a 65-year-old Greenport man approached the pair and began accusing the man of “being a ‘gangster’ and yelled other random things at them.’’ Neither could say what precipitated the accusations or the yelling, but the pair told police the 65-year-old left on foot.
Around 10:30 a.m., police, Cutchogue firefighters and the town fire marshal responded to a report of a fire in a Cutchogue farm field caused by fireworks. Responding firefighters extinguished the blaze and wet down the surrounding area. Police interviewed neighbors whose property bordered the farm field, and at least two neighbors denied setting off fireworks. One neighbor said he didn’t see anyone setting off fireworks but did hear them. An officer walking the property line towards that neighbor’s house “observed a domed fire pit with open sides” and items beneath the pit “that appeared to be fireworks.” Since no one observed the fireworks being set off and no other evidence pointed to the neighbor, no code violation tickets were issued.
Aug. 9 – Around 1:30 p.m., police received a call from a New Suffolk Ave. resident, who reported people “on his neighbor’s private beach and the children swimming in the water without life jackets.” Responding officers spoke to a 41-year-old Riverhead man, who left the area with his family without incident.
Around 6 p.m., police received a report of a “possibly intoxicated male, wearing a baseball cap, gray shirt and no shoes, walking in the road eastbound on Route 48” near Wickham Ave. in Mattituck. Responding officers located the man, who was indeed barefoot, and told police he was walking home from a friend’s house. Due to “weather conditions and possible hazard conditions,” police drove the man home to Peconic.
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.
