Blotter: Workman reports run-over transmitter in drive-by

The following are among the incidents to which Southold police responded between Feb. 2 and Feb. 9:

• A workman called police Feb. 2 to report that while he was marking water lines in the roadway on Sigsbee Road in Laurel, a blue sedan with tinted windows came through and ran over a transmitter and traffic cones he had set up in the street, damaging both. The vehicle reportedly then sped away westbound on Peconic Bay Boulevard. Responding officers canvassed the area with no results.
• On Feb. 4, a National Grid employee called police to report an electrical meter missing from an address in New Suffolk where some demolition was underway. The employee said he had learned from the construction company that it had been accidentally discarded, because it broke during the removal of some old piping. The employee stated he would need a Lost Property Report in order to replace and set up a new meter at the residence. Police contacted the construction company owner, who said he didn’t realize he wasn’t supposed to have thrown the meter away. 
• A Mattituck deli owner reported to police that video surveillance had captured an unknown man dumping five black garbage bags near the dumpster at the business on Feb. 5. One bag contained an Amazon box with a name and a Mattituck address, to which police responded. The house appeared unoccupied but police found a damaged vehicle in the driveway, and traced and contacted its owner. The registered owner said the package was addressed to a friend who was staying at the house with his son while they filmed a horror movie. Based on police description of the vehicle and security footage, the man also identified his son as the person who dumped the garbage bags, and said he would arrange for a family member nearby to remove them. The deli owner was satisfied with the arrangement.
• An officer on routine patrol was flagged down Feb. 2 for assistance by a man who reported that at approximately noon, a man riding a bicycle had stolen his backpack, which he had put down a few feet away while charging his phone. Officers reviewed video footage from a business nearby, which showed a man arriving at the location and leaving several minutes later carrying a white backpack. Because the individual was known to the officers from prior encounters, they then responded to his residence for an interview. He told police that he had left the backpack near a dumpster. Police returned it to the owner, who did not wish to press charges. 
• On Feb. 7, a couple was hit by a car on an Orient-bound Cross Sound Ferry vessel. A ferry employee told officers the staff was only made aware of the incident about halfway through the crossing. Based on his review of camera footage, he surmised that the driver of the vehicle in question, a Noyack resident, may have hit the gas accidentally during boarding. After disembarking at Orient, the driver told officers that he “tapped” the rear passenger side bumper of a vehicle in from of him and did not think he had struck anyone, that his vehicle was not damaged and that he saw no damage on the couple’s vehicle. The couple, a Holtsville man and his pregnant wife, said that while they were retrieving belongings from the trunk while, and the wife was alongside the rear passenger side bumper preparing to remove their 1-year-old child from a car seat, the car behind them jolted forward striking his right hip and his wife’s left hip and leg. The parties exchanged information while still on board. The couple said they were sore after the impact, and noted scratches on their vehicle’s bumper. The wife, in her seventh month, requested evaluation, which was provided by Orient Fire Department and Stony Brook medical personnel. The husband said he might seek urgent care the following day for his pain.

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.