Blotter: Real estate scams reported
• On Oct. 3, a Cutchogue woman reported that her Harris/Walz political signs were stolen, likely overnight on Tuesday, Oct. 1. There were no cameras to capture the incident, according to police.
• On Sept. 30, a Southold woman contacted police to report the theft of political signs from her property on Youngs Ave., requesting that the incident be documented.
• On Sept. 30, a Laurel man reported that his Kamala Harris sign had been stolen from his front yard, sometime between Sept. 26 and 29.
• On Oct. 3, neighbors in Cutchogue got into a heated dispute after one is alleged to have taken a “Trump for Suffolk County” sign from a neighbor’s property on the corner of Fleetwood Rd.and Pequash Ave.While out walking her dog, the Trump sign owner said she watched her neighbor walk away with the sign, and told him “you can’t take away my sign.” He replied that “you can’t put the sign there because it’s a right of way.” She told her husband, and soon the two men got into a verbal dispute in the street. By the time police arrived, the Trump sign owner was “highly agitated,” and the other man was “advised not to take items that don’t belong to him,” according to police.
• On Oct. 4, a Cutchogue woman reported that her Harris political sign had been stolen from her New Suffolk Ave. front yard the night before.
• On Sept. 30, a man contacted police to report that his property on Main Road in Orient had been listed for sale without his consent, by someone claiming to be him. According to the account he gave police, the perpetrator contacted a New York City real estate agent and requested that the victim’s property be advertised for sale for $675,000. Authorities contacted the real estate agent, who removed the listing. The incident is similar to a rash of local real estate scam attempts in the spring of 2023.
• On Oct. 1, a Southold woman contacted police to report that while she was away in Maine, someone got into her online bank accounts and began moving the money into other accounts, and trying to withdraw cash from them. When the 71-year-old woman got home, she realized she could only make outgoing calls, but couldn’t receive any. She contacted Optimum, who told her someone named “Heatherman” was forwarding her calls to a number that turned out to be a burner phone. She went to local authorities, who advised her to contact the IRS, the FBI and the three major credit unions. No money was ultimately taken from the accounts, according to Southold police.
• On Oct. 3, a Cutchogue woman reported that a 64-year-old Riverhead man was trying to pry her farmstand cash box from the wall. The woman reported yelling at the man through a Ring camera. Officers canvassed the area but did not locate the suspect. The cash box was scratched when the man tried to open it with a screwdriver. Police advised the farmstand owner to contact police if it happens again.
• On Sept. 30, a Cutchogue man contacted Southold police to reported damage to a cash box for firewood sales on his property on Middle Road in Peconic. An investigation is ongoing.
• On Oct.4, the Cutchogue farmstand owner referenced above told police she had spotted the man she saw on her Ring camera trying to steal her cash box, before she yelled at him to leave from the camera’s microphone. Wayne Conforti, 64, of Riverhead was located on Oct. 6 and arrested after a traffic stop for both incidents, after he allegedly took $5 from the cash box in the first instance, but left empty-handed during a second attempt to pry open the box.
• On Oct. 4, a Southold woman reported damage to a cash box at her farm stand on Hortons Lane. She told police the box had been pried open and the locking mechanism damaged, but that cash remained in the box when she found it. She requested the incident be documented.
• On Oct. 4, a Southold woman reported that her mailbox on Main Bayview Rd. was damaged while she was out of the house. The responding officer described the battered mailbox to be “an ongoing issue in the area.”
• On Oct. 5, Alessandro Beza Garza, 18, of Greenport was arrested for allegedly driving while intoxicated after police say the car he was driving failed to maintain its lane traveling north on Main St. and he was pulled over.
• On Oct. 5, a Southold man on Main Bayview Rd. reported his mailbox being damaged while he was out — knocked off its wooden stand and dented from what police said appears to be a rock. The responding officer noted that “this is one of many incidents involving unknown subjects damaging mailboxes with rocks/stones in the area.”
• Early on the morning of Oct. 6, Miguel Ramos Sensente, 31, of Riverhead was arrested for allegedly driving while intoxicated after police observed his car crossing the double yellow line while driving eastbound on Main Rd. in Southold.
• On Oct. 6, a Greenport resident who is out of town and is legally listing her residence for rent with Douglas Elliman Real Estate, reported to police that a fake Facebook profile had been set up, offering to rent the residence through them. She reported to police observing people through her Ring camera trying to access her property, and alerting the prospective tenants that the Facebook ad is a scam. An investigation is ongoing.
