Cops: Liquor thief injured after falling on stolen bottle

A Rhode Island man suffered a “severe laceration” to his abdomen early Sunday morning in Greenport after falling on top of a glass bottle in a theft gone wrong, according to a police report. 

The man and his friend, both in their 20s, were at Rhumb Line around 3:40 a.m. Sunday morning when an employee observed them leaning over the bar and stealing three bottles of Skyy Vodka, the report stated.

His friend took two bottles and fled, and the man took one bottle himself and fled west on Adams Street, police said. An officer who was stationed behind the restaurant observed the man fall on top of the bottle, causing it to break open underneath him. He then fled again.

The officer could not immediately locate the man, but police headquarters soon received a report of someone “badly bleeding” near the IGA on South Street. Officers responded to that area and found the man with a “severe laceration.”

The man “denied taking the bottle, but could not state his injuries,” police said. He would not state who the other man involved was.

Greenport Fire Department Rescue transported him to Peconic Bay Medical Center. The restaurant’s employee did not wish to press charges.