News

POLICE BLOTTER Southold Town

Southold Town Police arrested a Greenport resident they said brandished what appeared to be a black handgun and robbed another man of $40 in cash and a diver’s watch on the grounds of Greenport High School on the evening of March 22. Police charged Vaughn Creighton, 17, with second-degree robbery, a felony, not long after the incident. He was taken to headquarters and held on $2,500 bail.

• Police arrested a 46-year-old Greenport man found lying on the ground with a laceration to his forehead on Route 25 in downtown Southold just after midnight March 24. After responding to an anonymous report of an intoxicated man walking in the area, police said that they found Pedro F. Castro Mercado lying on the ground. Police said that Mr. Mercado presented officers with a fake Social Security card and a fake permanent resident card. He was charged with criminal possession of a forged instrument in the second degree and false personation, taken to headquarters and held for arraignment. Police said that Mr. Mercado was wanted on an active arrest warrant in Ventura, Calif.

• Donald R. Johnson Jr., 35, of Orient was charged with driving while intoxicated after he was stopped for vehicle and traffic violations on Route 25 in Orient just before 3 a.m. Sunday, according to police reports. Mr. Johnson was also charged with aggravated unlicensed operation. He was held overnight for a morning arraignment.

• Colin J. Volinski, 21, of Southold was arrested just after 11 p.m. Sunday night, after police said they found him in possession of a controlled substance during a traffic stop on Route 25 in Southold. Police said Mr. Volinski, who was in a rear passenger seat of a car that had been stopped, was seen trying to hide an unlabeled prescription bottle under his seat when an officer approached the vehicle. Mr. Volinski was taken to headquarters for processing, given a later court date and released on bail.

• Mario Uyu, 26, of Jamesport was stopped for speeding on Route 25 in Laurel just before 9 p.m. Sunday when police found that his license had been suspended due to a prior DWI charge, according to police reports. He was charged with aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, taken to headquarters for processing and released on $200 bail.

• A small brush fire was started by four Greenport teenagers who were playing with matches near the railroad tracks behind a Route 25 lumber yard in Greenport at about 6:30 p.m. Saturday, according to police. The Greenport and Orient fire departments put out the flames. Police said that they found the four youths, two 14 years old and the other two 17, on Fifth Street in Greenport. The youths reportedly told police that one of them was playing with matches and lit a small amount of grass that another youth was holding. That youth dropped the burning grass, setting brush on fire. One of them tried to extinguish the fire with a coat. When he was unsuccessful, they panicked and ran, swimming across a small creek into Greenport, according to police. Police took the youths to their homes and explained to their parents what had happened.

• Police responded to two burglaries at neighboring houses on Route 48 in Greenport last week. One residence was reportedly targeted sometime between January 1 and March 26, when someone cut a kitchen window screen and entered the house, stealing two television sets. The caretaker for a neighboring Route 48 home reported March 24 that sometime between March 20 and 24 someone stole a 42-inch Philips LCD flat screen TV, a 19-inch Sylvania television, two DVD players, a set of Sony speakers, a yellow power washer, a printer, a laptop computer and a set of doorbell chimes. Police said the burglar apparently cut a kitchen window screen to get into the house and exited through a sliding door.

• A resident of West Street in Greenport woman reported on March 27 that when she returned to the house after being away for several hours she found a rear window open and a footprint on her washing machine. Two shopping bags full of cans and bottles that she had been saving for the deposits, valued at $3, were reported missing.

• A resident of Park Avenue in Mattituck reported on March 27 that someone stole a Rally mountain bike and a red toy pedal tractor from an unlocked shed behind his property.

• A resident of Route 25, Greenport, told police March 22 that a 15-speed bicycle had been stolen from his house.

• A custodian at Mattituck High School reported just before 7 a.m. on March 22 that someone entered the school and poured what appeared to be maple syrup on the floor and on several lockers earlier that morning, according to police reports. Police said the trickster also put tape on a door and over a water fountain button, causing it to overflow onto the floor.

• Tammy Gregg, 44, of Southold was taken to Eastern Long Island Hospital by the Southold Fire Department just before 7 a.m. on March 22, after she lost consciousness due to a diabetic emergency while driving on Soundview Avenue in Southold and struck a telephone pole, according to police reports.

• After several Southold residents told police that their car windows had been shattered by BB gunfire last week, three more victims reported similar attacks this week. A resident of Wells Avenue in Southold reported just before 7 p.m. on March 24 that three windows in the front of his house had been shot out with a BB gun. A Main Bayview Road resident reported that someone shattered the rear window of a Ford Explorer parked in his driveway sometime between 5:30 and 7 p.m. the same evening. The owner of a business on Route 25 in Southold said on March 25 that someone had shot out the front windows of the store with a BB gun sometime between 7 p.m. on March 24 and 2 p.m. on March 25.

Those who are named in police reports have not been convicted of any crime or violation. The charges against them may later be reduced or withdrawn, or they may be found innocent.