On May 22, a Lake Grove man was arrested after allegedly trying to flee police in a stolen car on Main Rd. in East Marion. Police received a hit on a license plate reader, which indicated that a stolen car was proceeding westbound from Orient Point. A police cruiser located the vehicle, and an officer activated its lights and siren. According to police, driver Justis Fuentes, 23, continued traveling west at 40 mph, prompting Southold Town police personnel to lay tire-puncturing ‘stop strips’ across the road near Stars Road and Old Orchard Lane, puncturing all four tires. The car eventually stopped near Shipyard Lane, and the driver was ordered out of the car and to lay face down on the ground with his hands behind his back, police said. Fuentes was handcuffed and arrested for alleged criminal larceny.
On May 19, a Mattituck high school student got a visit from police, after an employee at Veterans Beach on Peconic Bay Blvd. reported a white Chevy pickup doing “burnouts” in the beach parking lot. A burnout is the practice of keeping a vehicle stationary and spinning its wheels, causing the tires to heat up and smoke. Police said the 18-year-old student from East Marion was “apologetic” when confronted with the allegations.
On May 20, a Mattituck bank branch manager contacted police to report that a 93-year-old Greenport West man was going from branch to branch, trying to wire money to a subject in Indonesia. According to police, the man tried to complete the transaction at several branches, before a Riverhead branch of the bank allowed the transaction to go through. When an officer contacted the man by phone, he was “abrasive … and was adamant he was not being scammed but it was a legitimate business opportunity.” He told the officer “in sum and substance, ‘the matter does not concern you. It’s my money I can do what I want with it.’” Police advised the man’s granddaughter of the incident and said they would continue to investigate.
On May 20, Clinton Cameron, 40, of Mattituck was arrested for alleged driving while intoxicated, after being stopped by police for failing to yield the right of way at an intersection in Mattituck.
On May 20, a Massapequa man reported to police that another car struck his vehicle, which was parked on Main St. in Greenport, and left the scene. Investigators are reviewing security camera footage, police said.
On May 21, a North Ferry employee reported that a driver in a dark gray Mercedes with Ontario license plates failed to pay his fare following a ferry ride to Greenport from Shelter Island. The employee told police that the man said he would visit an ATM and return to pay his $16 fare, but instead fled the area. Police canvassed the area without success.
On May 21, police responded to a call about a fight in progress at Feather Hill Village shopping center in Southold. Employees of a store there said that Dennis Reilly, 52, of Southold, came in “yelling and swinging his fists” at a store employee, ultimately hitting him repeatedly on the head, according to police. After several employees tried to step in and break up the fight, according to a police report, a female employee was struck on the back. Police said Reilly was interviewed at his residence and arrested for criminal harassment.
On May 21, a Southold woman reported being approached by another Southold woman in the King Kullen parking lot in Cutchogue who allegedly stated “how’s my husband doing, you whore.” By the time police arrived, the woman who asked the question had left the scene. Interviewed later at her home, the questioner acknowledged asking the other woman about her husband, but denied calling her a whore. She was advised not to contact the other woman again.
On May 22, Engell Leon Garcia, 28, with no known address, was arrested for criminal trespass after allegedly using a painter’s tool to pry open the locked back door of his ex-girlfriend’s Cox Lane residence in Cutchogue. The homeowner received an anonymous call that someone was entering her residence. An officer responding to the location found Garcia in the kitchen, and the painter’s tool sitting next to his hat and sneakers, police said. He was arrested after the homeowner signed a criminal trespass affidavit, and held pending arraignment, as the alleged victim was seeking an order of protection.
On May 23, a North Ferry employee in Greenport contacted police about a man with no known address being inside the bathroom at the ferry dock for more than an hour. Separately, an employee at the Railroad Museum in Greenport contacted police to report a different man with no known address sleeping on the museum’s handicap ramp.
On May 24, police received a call that Noe Pacheco, 39, with no known address, was intoxicated and approaching families and children in Mitchell Park. Police arrived, and advised Pacheco to refrain from approaching patrons in the park.
On May 25, Beder Boyate Morales, 29, of Peconic was arrested for alleged driving while intoxicated, after police say the car he was driving ran off the road and onto the north shoulder of Main Road just east of the Southold Police Dept, as an officer was exiting the police dept. parking lot.