What began as duck-hunting disputes along Brushes Creek in Laurel escalated into police responses, property boundary questions, claims that hunters were shot at and — ultimately — a desk appearance ticket issued for alleged “hunter harassment.” The creekside dustups anchored a week in which Southold officers also chased down reports of unattended children near a convenience store, doors flapping open in the winter wind, a home security camera catching unexpected, ladder-wielding visitors, a New Year’s Day dumpster fire in Greenport and bristling tensions between two South Fork landowning families over recent parcel purchases.

Dec. 29 – Shortly after 11 a.m., police received a report that a 5-year-old girl and 7-year-old boy were walking eastbound on Main Road near the Greenport 7-Eleven, apparently alone, according to a police report. Responding officers canvassed the area without locating any unattended children.

Around the same time, a Southold resident on Soundview Ave. noticed that his next-door neighbor’s balcony sliding door was open and called police. A responding sergeant and police officer observed the sliding door to be open but the screen door closed. All other doors and windows were secure and there were no signs of forced entry, according to a police report, so the sergeant climbed a ladder and entered the home through the open glass door to confirm no one had broken in. Finding everything in order, Southold police closed the sliding glass door and departed. The homeowner was notified of the incident by police.

Around 1 p.m., cops received a call from a Mattituck resident who was not at home, who said she was watching two unknown males with ladders through a Ring camera at her Bailie Beach Road residence. Police responded to the home and found two men cleaning the gutters. The resident arrived home and told police her son-in-law had failed to alert her that he’d scheduled a gutter cleaning for that day.

Dec. 30 – Around 11 a.m., a Calverton man on a dredge on the water called police to report the rear door of a residence appeared to be open and blowing in the wind at a Old Salt Rd. residence in Mattituck. A responding officer located the door and attempted to close it, but the latch was broken and wouldn’t stay closed, according to a police report. The officer put a hose in front of the door to keep the door shut.

Around 6 p.m., Southold police and Mattituck firefighters were called to a residence on Breakwater Road for a report of “a burning smell” in the kitchen. Firefighters investigated and “determined an old cooking pan to be the cause.”

Near 11 p.m., police responded to a report of a motor vehicle leaving the scene of an accident on Peconic Lane in Peconic. A police report identifies a 23-year-old Southold man as a suspect. No further information about the incident or the investigation was provided.

Dec. 31 – Around 8:30 a.m., police were contacted by a Riverhead resident, who reported her suspicion that in Oct. 2019, an acquaintance “was having an inappropriate relationship with” a minor and provided an audio recording to police. An investigation is ongoing, but no further information about the incident was immediately available. 

Around 5:30 p.m., a tenant on Front St. in Greenport contacted police to report that following an “issue with her landlord,” she returned to find “all her personal items removed from the apartment.” An investigation is ongoing, according to a police report.

Near 8 p.m., police received a report of a vehicle failing to maintain its lane on Main Road in Orient, according to a report. Responding officers located the vehicle and executed a traffic stop. The driver, 71, from Harvard, MA., told authorities he’d been traveling all day and was tired, which caused him to veer off the roadway. A Southold officer observed no signs of impairment, and advised the driver to pull over and rest if he becomes too tired to drive.

Jan. 1 –  Around 3:30 p.m., police received a report of a black vehicle doing “burnouts” on Main Road in Orient. Police canvassed the area without locating the vehicle.

At about 4:15 p.m., police and Southold firefighters responded to a dumpster fire behind the IGA in Greenport. According to a report, stacks of cardboard and part of the structure were “engulfed in flames.” Southold firefighters extinguished the blaze, and the Suffolk County Police arson squad was notified and responded. An investigation is ongoing, according to police.

Jan. 2 – Just before 7 a.m., a Laurel resident contacted police to report that duck hunters were operating too close to his North Oakwood Road property, telling authorities the hunters were not permitted to hunt in the creek near homes. The homeowner pointed out to a responding officer several hunters in a duck blind in Brushes Creek. The officer — who tried without success to reach a DEC officer — cited state DEC regulations that permit duck hunting from Dec. 6 to Jan. 25, and said the hunters were “within the jurisdictional boundaries and not on private property,” according to a police report.  

Less than an hour later, a second resident of North Oakwood Road called police to report that the duck hunters were operating too close to his home on the edge of Brushes Creek. Authorities again responded and related that it’s duck hunting season and that the hunters were in a  permitted jurisdiction, were hunting in a safe direction and weren’t on private property.

Around 11:30 a.m., a series of incidents that unfolded in another town’s jurisdiction between two feuding neighbors nonetheless landed on the doorstep of the Southold Police Dept. — when one of the two men, a 33-year-old Water Mill resident, told Southold cops that his frenemy, a 31-year-old Water Mill man, was living with his parents at their Southold home. The two men have known each other for years because their families own farmland in Water Mill together, and the 33-year-old claimed that his family’s recent purchase of “multiple plots” of the other family’s land on the South Fork has made the relationship between the two clans “tense and hostile.” The 33-year-old claimed the other man would “randomly text him multiple messages ranting about business/farmland talk and how greedy [he] was, etc.” A responding officer’s review of the messages “did not observe anything threatening in nature,” according to a police report. Recently, the younger man ran into the father of the older man, which “triggered” the younger man to text “false rumors about how [the other man]’s wife cheated on him before they were married, etc. Again,” the officer wrote, “nothing threatening.” The 33-year-old said he only wanted the series of incidents documented and did not want police to contact the other man. Police suggested that he block the younger man’s phone number to avoid further tensions.

Around 5 p.m., police responded to a residence on South St. in Greenport, where a group of Greenport residents well-known to police were “hanging out.” According to a police report, the caller, who was described as “highly intoxicated,” had cause “problems” with the others and was told to leave. When she refused to leave, according to a report, one of the other people congregating at the residence allegedly threw one of her bags out of the door. One of the individuals said the allegedly intoxicated woman could stay with him, but “after transporting both subjects to [the man’s] mother’s residence, she was not allowed inside.” At that point, according to a report, the woman stated that she was “going to be sick,” and was transported to a local hospital for evaluation.

Jan. 3 – Around 6 p.m., a resident near Little Peconic Bay Road and Sailors Lane in Cutchogue reported that a vehicle of unknown make and model was “driving in the area and shining a flashlight near the woods and into residences.” A police canvass of the area located a PSEG truck with a spotlight working on a utility pole in the area.

Jan. 4 – Around midnight, a Maple Lane resident in Greenport West heard a “loud noise” outside her residence, looked out the window, and saw damage to her mailbox and tire tracks on the front lawn. There were no surveillance cameras in the area to observe the incident, according to a police report.

Around 7 a.m. a group of hunters reported that a Laurel resident on Peconic Bay Blvd “shot” at them while they were duck-hunting in the area. Four members of the Southold Police Dept. responded. The four duck hunters told authorities they had set up in their kayaks in Brushes Creek around 5:30 a.m., and fired their first shots after 6:45 a.m., when duck hunting is permitted. After firing a total of three rounds, the hunters told police, a “resident from a nearby house fired a shotgun in their direction.” The man then “confronted” the hunters and told them to get off his property, even though they were positioned “in the middle of the marsh,” according to the hunters. The hunters asked the man why he had shot at them, and he denied doing so, according to a police report. They called police and returned to land. They directed responding police to the residence, and the homeowner there denied that he had shot at the hunters in Brushes Creek, according to the report. After police located “firework remnants” on the man’s property, he “subsequently admitted to discharging one firework in the direction of the group of duck hunters, stating that he believed they were on his property.” The homeowner, who was advised that the hunters were legally allowed to hunt in the area, was issued a desk appearance ticket for alleged “hunter harassment.”

Around 9:30 p.m., police received an open line 911 call that pinged at an address on Third St. in Greenport. A 20-year-old Greenport man at the location told police that a former friend of his arrived at his residence appearing intoxicated and holding an alcoholic beverage, and began screaming the resident’s name. The allegedly intoxicated juvenile was told to leave multiple times before finally complying prior to the arrival of police.

Jan. 5 – Around 8 a.m., Robert Smith, 67, of Greenport was arrested on an outstanding bench warrant, after a Third St. resident called police and asked them to remove Smith from her home, 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.