Southold blotter: Someone stole Cutchogue woman’s chickens

A Cutchogue woman told police last week that someone had been helping her chickens fly the coop.

The woman said seven of her chickens have gone missing in recent days, and noted that she saw a woman steal the last chicken and run away to a house on New Suffolk Road, according to a police report. 

A police officer spoke with a 25-year-old resident at that house, who said “no one has stolen any chickens that he knows of,” according to the report. The resident told police he would make sure people stay away from the woman’s property. The victim told police she only wanted to document the incident at this time.

• A Mattituck man told police he received harassing phone calls from a Smithtown man he kicked out of a band.

The band leader told police last Tuesday that he’s been receiving threats from the exiled musician, who said he would harm the band leader if he wasn’t allowed back into the group, the report states.

Police told the man to stop calling his former bandmate, and he agreed. The band leader told police he doesn’t want to pursue charges.

• A Mattituck woman called police Sunday afternoon to report a raccoon was in her New Suffolk Avenue driveway and “won’t leave,” according to a police report.

An officer came to the house and found the raccoon, which was “in good health.”

The cop guided the raccoon back into the woods.

• A East Marion man was charged with aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle after police said they caught him towing a trailer without a license plate.

An officer stopped 25-year-old Thomas Green on Route 48 in Mattituck and found his license was suspended. He was released with a ticket, and was told to wait in the parked vehicle until a licensed driver came to pick him up, police said.

• Someone stole an American flag from a 75-year-old resident’s flagpole in Mattituck last Thursday, according to a police report. The victim said the flag was taken overnight and that he didn’t know who had stolen it.

• Police and North Fork fire crews responded to four minor fires in the past week, including one at a Cutchogue school playground, according to police reports.

In the first incident, a Southold police officer was able to extinguish a kitchen fire after responding to an emergency call at a Mattituck house last Wednesday morning, police said.

Southold police and Mattituck Fire Department volunteers were called to the Sigsbee Road house around 11:30 a.m. after hearing that a gas stove had caught fire, according to a police statement.The officer doused the flames with a handheld fire extinguisher before firefighters took over the scene, police said. The fire department later found the cause of the fire was a faulty vent fan, police said. No injuries or other damage was caused by the fire.

Two days later, Cutchogue Fire Department was called to a garage on Granthwohl Road where a “pile of rags” had self-combusted, police said. The fire was put out before any property was damaged, according to an officer’s report.

A Southold Town police officer on patrol in Mattituck noticed a chimney fire at a property on Main Road that same day. Mattituck firefighters responded and doused the fire, police said.

On Sunday, police again got a report of a “smoke condition,” this time on the west side of the Cutchogue East School. A cop at the scene found that the wood chips around the school’s playground had caught fire.

Cutchogue firefighters were called out to the school and put out the mulch fire. While the cause of the fire hasn’t been determined yet, police said it “does not appear to be suspicious,” according to an incident report.

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.