Police

Southold Police: New Year’s Day burglary tops the blotter

Jerry C. Stephens, 53, of Mattituck was charged with two counts of burglary after police reported seeing a man pulling a cart with an oxyacetylene torch and two gas tanks in it from an industrial business on Wickham Ave. at 2:10 p.m. on New Years Day. Mr Stephens, who was later found hiding behind the North Fork Community Theater, said that he was moving the equipment for a friend when questioned by police, according to reports. Police later found tracks that matched the tracks of the cart in the snow leading from the industrial building, whose owner said that Mr. Stephens did not have permission to remove the equipment.

• A Sigsbee Road, Laurel resident reported that his house was ransacked and a large number of electronics were stolen  while he was away between Dec. 19 and Dec. 29. Police said that the burglar likely gained entrance to the house through an unlocked basement Bilco door. The victim reported that three laptops, a printer, a Nintendo 64, a computer monitor, Nintendo games and controllers, a pair of binoculars, a modem and two routers were among the items missing from his house. Police said that the victim’s other possessions were strewn about the house, and that a knife that did not belong to the victim was found in the living room.

• James Sage, 56, of Greenport was taken to Stony Brook University Medical Center by Suffolk County Police helicopter after he fell from a ladder on Terry Lane in Southold on the afternoon of Jan. 4. The Southold Fire Department rescue squad provided care to Mr. Sage on the scene while awaiting the helicopter.