Southold Blotter: Driver crashes into parklets, charged with DWI

A Greenport Village employee reported a woman who had been staying at the village campground on Moores Lane for keeping four potted marijuana plants outside of her camper last Wednesday afternoon.

While it is no longer illegal to grow up to 12 marijuana plants on residential property, village officials said they did not wish to have them kept at the public campground. They feared it was accessible to children.

The camper was told she had until the end of the day to remove the pot plants before the village did so.

• A 31-year-old man was arrested for aggravated driving while intoxicated after striking a wooden barricade constructed for parklets in Greenport early Saturday morning, police said.

Joel Hesch of Pleasantville allegedly left the scene and was stopped shortly afterward. He was found to be intoxicated and was transported to police headquarters to await arraignment. The incident occurred around 2 a.m.

• A 12-year-old boy vacationing at his grandparents’ Southold home assisted a woman who was struggling while swimming off South Harbor Road Friday afternoon.

The 71-year-old woman became ill and semi-conscious due to exhaustion and was swallowing salt water, police said. The boy found the woman and dialed 911. He then used an inflatable boat to assist the woman, a Southold police officer and a Southold Fire Department EMT from the inlet to the Indian Neck boat ramp, where an ambulance was waiting. 

“The Southold Police Department would like to thank the youth for his assistance and demeanor, especially at such a young age,” the police said.

• A Greenport Village employee reported last Tuesday morning that someone had damaged both water fountains at the skate park on Moores Lane.

• A resident of Glenn Road in Southold put the town’s new leaf blower law to the test last Tuesday by reporting a commercial landscaping crew that was working on a neighboring property at 6:07 p.m. The crew was unaware of the law, which prohibits the use of gas-powered blowers by commercial landscapers after 6 p.m. on weeknights. They said it would not happen again. The law also prohibits the commercial use of blowers after 5 p.m. on Saturdays and all day Sunday.

• A 25-year-old Cutchogue woman called police to report a man parked in front of her residence on Depot Lane. She said that when she asked the man what he was doing he held up a pair of binoculars. Police said the man was gone upon their arrival. The vehicle was registered to a 57-year-old Manhattan man, who according to online reports is an avid birdwatcher.

• A Mattituck woman called police last Saturday after she spotted a bus with adults hanging out of the windows as it headed down Main Road in the hamlet.

Police stopped the bus only to learn that its occupants were doing so for relief as the air conditioning unit on the chartered vehicle was broken.

The driver said another bus was being brought to the location to solve the issue.

• Visitors at Inlet Pond County Park in Greenport notified police Sunday morning that landscaping debris had been dumped and was blocking the path to a hiking trail there. Police said a Greenport man had asked a landscaping company to drop the debris at the location to limit public access to the trail.

• Residents of Vineyard View in Greenport were reported for taking pictures of their neighbors’ trash. They said they were doing so to illustrate the mess being made by the neighbors’ parties.

• A 55-year-old Cutchogue man said Saturday morning that rent money was stolen from the barbecue cabinet where he kept it on West Road.

• What was at first believed to be a garbage can fire outside a residence on Manhanset Avenue in Greenport Sunday night turned out to be a burning box of fireworks adjacent to the can, police said. A fire extinguisher was used to stop the fire.

• A Southold Town highway worker notified police Friday afternoon of a Franklinville Road resident who complained about people parking near his home as they dropped children off and picked them up at the preschool on the street. The man was reportedly angry as the highway workers arrived to cut grass on town property there. He said he wished to install railroad ties or some similar obstruction on the town parcel to prevent people from parking there. The town notified the man he could not make alterations as it was not a part of his yard.

• A Southold man was escorted home by police Sunday afternoon after he was observed walking out of the nearby Citgo gas station in an intoxicated state. He had previously been reported for driving erratically, but his vehicle was parked at the gas station when police arrived. The vehicle was left behind overnight.

• A Cutchogue man reported Friday afternoon that eight locust hardwood split rail fence posts he had recently purchased were stolen from his property on Old Pasture Road.

• A Southold man found a 28-year-old homeless man sleeping on the couch at a cottage on his Route 48 property Friday morning. The homeowner did not wish to press charges.

• A Southold man reported Sunday morning that a piece of plywood was removed from a barn on Main Road in what was a possible break-in. No items were missing from the barn. The incident likely occurred between Friday afternoon and Saturday morning, the complainant said.

• A Southold man was informed by police that his boat that had broken from its mooring during a recent storm was partially submerged in water off Paradise Shores Road last Thursday morning. He was told to notify Sea Tow for assistance.

• Police were notified of a boat taking on water outside Port of Egypt Marina in Southold Sunday morning. When police arrived they found the owner of the boat had reached the dock safely.

• A complainant reported a man wearing socks walking around Manor Place in Greenport in what appeared to be an intoxicated condition Sunday night.

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.