Southold Blotter: Craigslist scam costs man $4,700

A Southold man was reportedly scammed out of $4,700 after a Craigslist sale went bad.

The victim said he sold a camper on the website and received a bank check for the purchase price and shipping costs, according to a police report filed last Tuesday. He refunded the buyer the shipping fee.

When the victim tried to cash the check, he was reportedly told it was invalid. He tried to contact the buyer, but the funds covering the shipping costs had already been removed from his account, police said.

Detectives are investigating.

• Four scales were reported missing from a Greenport classroom this week, according to police who investigated the possible burglary.

At about 8 a.m. Friday morning, cops were called to Greenport High School after a teacher noticed four triple-beam scales had gone missing from her classroom overnight, according to a police report.

The scales are valued at a combined $600, police said. Detectives are investigating.

• Someone sprayed graffiti on the trailer of a tractor trailer at a Cutchogue farm, according to a police report filed Saturday afternoon.

The victim told police the graffiti had been spray-painted on the trailer sometime since December. Further information wasn’t included in the report and no arrests were reported.

• A Southold man called police to report a suspicious red Mustang parked outside his residence Sunday morning, according to a police report.

Police arrived at the home and investigated, but stopped when the man realized the car belonged to his daughter’s friend. No further action was taken.

• Police received a 911 call Sunday afternoon from a deactivated cellphone from what sounded like a child, according to a police report.

Cops traced the call to a Greenport residence and interviewed a woman there who said her daughter was playing with an old cellphone. An officer checked and learned it was the same device that had dialed 911. Police advised the woman that deactivated cellphones can still make emergency calls.

• A 2006 Dodge Durango has been parked at a Cutchogue shopping center for two months, according to a security guard who called police to have the car removed.

According to a security guard for a nearby supermarket, the car was apparently abandoned in the Main Road parking lot, according to police report. Last Tuesday, police found the vehicle’s information and had Shelter Island police try to track down the owner; however, no one lives at the address where the car is registered.

Police reportedly told the security guard the truck would have to be removed at the shopping center’s expense.

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.