With bone-chilling temps and ice-covered roads, last week felt like a snow globe on pause, and the police blotter reflected it. Southold Town officers were out in force throughout the storm, but with most residents snowed in and staying put, calls for service were few and far between. The week’s reports leaned toward wintry mix-ups and weather-related checks, with one notable exception late Friday, when a car that hit a snowbank led to a DWI arrest.
Jan. 26 – Around 5:30 p.m., an anonymous female contacted police to report that a car on Laurel Trail had its hazard lights on for the past thirty minutes. Prior to an officer responding, the woman called back to say it was a false alarm: the individual was shoveling their driveway.
Jan. 27 – Around 11:15 a.m., a Southold Police patrol car was parked at the intersection of Main Road and Queen St., when a car came by traveling eastbound “at a high rate of speed.” As the officer pursued the vehicle, “as it quickly gained distance [from the police car] it was apparent that the vehicle was passing cars,” according to a report. Another officer traveling westbound also noticed the allegedly speeding Black Cadillac Escalade. Police were able to initiate a traffic stop just west of Browns Hill Road at 11:23 a.m. The driver, a 61-year-old. Lindenhurst woman told police what they had probably already surmised: she was rushing to catch the 11:30 a.m. ferry at Orient Point. She was issued traffic tickets, according to the report.
Around 3:30 p.m., a Cutchogue woman reported what she believed to be a theft of groceries from her car in the King Kullen parking lot in Cutchogue. She said she spent about $70 on groceries and “went immediately home after shopping,” according to a police report, but when she was unloading the car she noticed some grocery bags missing. She returned to the supermarket to see if she’d left the bags in the store, but found none. A responding officer reviewed surveillance video from a nearby store and cracked the case: he observed the woman loading the groceries into her car and then driving away with her trunk still open.
Jan. 28 – Around 8 a.m., a Cutchogue woman contacted Southold police regarding an unspecified larceny. An investigation is ongoing, according to a report.
Jan. 29 – Around 8:30 a.m., Greenport High School officials contacted police to report a series of phishing emails being sent to the school’s business office. The emails — with an IP address linked to locations in Wisconsin and the country Hungary — appear to be coming from school employees, requesting that that business office change employees’ direct deposit information. School officials told authorities that direct deposit information is “solely done using a pen and paper method for reasons like this.” No personal information or money has been lost, according to a report, though staffers are being urged to change their email passwords.
Around 6:30 p.m., police received a report of a possibly intoxicated man wearing a black jacket and standing in the middle of the road near Greenport High School. Responding officers canvassed the area for the individual, without success.
Jan. 31 – Around 1 p.m., police received reports of individuals “on the ice in Sterling Creek, according to a police report, which states that a small boat appeared to be stuck in the ice. Another boat came and towed the small boat back to Safe Harbor, at which point police were informed that the Safe Harbor employee was in a small, ice-breaking boat that experience a mechanical issue, prompting him to call a colleague for a tow.
Around 2:30 p.m., a Cutchogue man called police to report “an older man roughhousing with possibly his grandson in his truck” in the King Kullen parking lot in Cutchogue. Responding officers did not observe a vehicle matching the caller’s description, but tracked registration information the caller provided, which came back for a vehicle that did not match the description given by the caller.
Around 6:30 p.m., Luis Najera Jimenez, 35, of Southold, was arrested for alleged driving while intoxicated, after police received a report of a vehicle that went off the roadway into a snow bank on Main Bayview Rd. in Southold. The caller told police the driver exited the vehicle and began walking down the roadway. A responding officer located the driver beside the vehicle. According to a police report, Jimenez “had slurred speech, bloodshot glassy eyes and was unsteady on his feet.” After allegedly performing poorly on field sobriety tests, he was arrested and transported to headquarters for processing.
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.