It was another week of North Fork mysteries, misadventures and questionable judgment, as police investigated reports of drones that apparently weren’t drones, a sailboat fire that turned out to be across Long Island Sound in Connecticut, and a Tesla Cybertruck taking an unauthorized spin on the beach. Elsewhere, a Greenport dispute involving a shirtless man with a gun ended with nobody pressing charges, a Southold motorist managed to accumulate six tickets in a single traffic stop, and a group of teenage pranksters appeared to have second thoughts about their latest round of ding-dong ditch.
Oct. 5 – Around 4:45 p.m., a 28-year-old Cutchogue man came to police headquarters to complain about a neighbor. According to the Cutchogue man, a 60-year-old neighbor “has a habit of driving down the private road … often.” The younger man claimed that the older man “drives too fast and has no business on the private road.” The 60-year-old is the same man who has twice been the source of complaints from local women who reported that he was following them and making them uncomfortable.
Around 5:45 p.m., police were called to a South St. home in Greenport that is under an eviction notice, to mitigate a dispute over a possible missing cell phone. When police sought to interview the two individuals, they became uncooperative and left the area, according to a police report. Two hours later, a resident of a different home on Third St. called police to complaint that two men “refuse[d] to leave the front porch.” One of those men was identified as being part of the missing cell phone dispute. A half hour later, an establishment on Front St. called to complain about the same man, saying he was intoxicated and refusing the leave the location. When police arrived, the man left the area on foot.
Around 9:30 p.m., a Greenport business owner complained to police that a male subject “wearing baggie jeans and a gray hoodie” was asking people for money on Front St. Police located a 53-year-old East Marion man matching the description, who acknowledged that he had been panhandling and promised to stop.
Oct. 6 – Around 3 p.m., a Laurel woman told police she had purchased a used car seat from a Groton, CT. woman on Facebook Marketplace for $221, with the Connecticut woman promising to mail the seat. When the seat didn’t arrive, the Laurel woman contacted the Groton woman, who said she had been unable to mail the seat due to a death in the family. She had Venmo’d the buyer $60 of her money back, but said she couldn’t send all the money back because she had spent it. Police contacted the woman, who stated that she would Venmo back another $80 that night, with the balance coming as soon as she could get more money.
Around 5:30 p.m., a 24-year-old Greenport man who is well-known to police told authorities that he approached two other local men, also well-known to police, near the corner of Third St. and South St. and that one of them “became agitated for an unknown reason and pulled a black pistol from his waistband and threatened to kill [the 24-year-old].” Upon returning to his residence, the 24-year-old said he said the man who had allegedly threatened him with a gun “walking towards the residence, agitated, with his shirt off.” Police located the shirtless man, who was, in fact, carrying a gun, according to a police report. The shirtless man told police the 24-year-old had “made comments about [the shirtless man’s] family and in sum and substance …. stated that he had fought a grown man last night, and he would not be afraid to fight [the shirtless man].” The third man told police he witnessed the encounter and that at no point did the shirtless man pull a gun. Both the 24-year-old and his shirtless foe declined to press charges.
Oct. 8 – While on patrol around 4 a.m., an officer observed a Flock camera near the corner of Main St. and Knapp Place in Greenport West to be facing the wrong the direction.
Around 8 p.m., a Leslie Road resident in Peconic contacted police to report “multiple drones flying in the area,” including “some that [flew] low over his property.” Police dispatched a Southold police drone but did not identify any of the objects in question to be drones, according to a police report.
Oct. 9 – Around 1:15 p.m., police were contacted by a Nassau Point Road homeowner who said “she [remotely] observed smoke on her basement camera.” Police and Cutchogue firefighters responded and “observed a broken heat pipe with a steam condition in the basement electrical room.” The homeowner was able to turn off the water with her phone, according to a report. The homeowner told authorities her husband would respond to the location and contact a plumber.
Around 5 p.m., police received an anonymous call of a possibly distressed sailboat in the water near Aquaview Ave. in East Marion. Officers responded and flew a drone to the sailboat, but the crew were unable to verify if there were any subjects in distress on the boat. A marine unit then responded, by which point a tow boat was on scene, and the tow boat operator said they’d been contacted by the sailboat owner to retrieve a dingy that had broken loose from the sailboat and drifted away. Police were unable to make direct contact with the boat’s owner, according to a report.
Around 8:30 p.m., a passing motorist called police to report “the smell of garbage burning” near Third St. in Greenport. Responding officers determined that the smell was coming from a LIRR maintenance train idling at the station.
Oct. 10 – Around 6:30 a.m., police received a license plate reader hit on a vehicle near the corner of Colony Road and Albertson Lane in Southold. According to a police report, the front license plate didn’t match the rear license plate and neither plate was registered to the car, a 2005 Hyundai. The registration sticker also did not match the vehicle, which had no insurance. The car was towed and the driver, a 48-year-old Southold man, received six traffic tickets.
Around 12:30 p.m., police received a report of an active vessel fire on the Long Island Sound. Before boarding a marine unit patrol vessel, a police sergeant reported that the fire appeared to be on land across the Sound in Connecticut. A responding officer went to Breakwater Beach and confirmed the fire was on shore of the Nutmeg State.
Around 3:45 p.m., police received a report of a possibly intoxicated male “walking into traffic” near North Road and Queen St. in Greenport. Responding officers canvassed the area but did not locate any such man.
Around 4:30 p.m., police responded to a report of a Tesla Cybertruck driving on the beach at Duck Pond Point, but when officers arrived, the truck had already left the beach, according to a report.
Around 7 p.m., a Southold man contacted police to report that his 12-year-old daughter had received a text message from an unknown number saying that a group would be “pulling up” to her house that evening, following an ongoing trend of “ding dong ditches.” Over the summer, according to the homeowner, a group of three teens had repeatedly “ding dong ditched,” the home – ringing the doorbell and running away. The father had attempted to confront the teens at one point, but they drove away too fast, according to a report. When the 12-year-old daughter texted back, saying her parents were calling the police, the unidentified teens responded “I’m just joking, I feel bad and sorry” and that “we’re not going to your house.” The father wanted the incident documented, and turned over screenshots of the text messages and security camera video to the police.
