Police / Police Reports

Southampton Police Reports for the Week of November 21

SOUTHAMPTON VILLAGE — Three teenagers were escorted out of Stop & Shop on Jagger Lane on November 11 after employees called police to report the teen boys were cursing at them and refusing to leave the store.

SOUTHAMPTON VILLAGE — A Lewis Street resident called Village Police on November 11 to report a suspicious man in a black sedan was parked in front of their house and had repeatedly knocked on their door. A responding officer located the man, who informed the officer that he works for the Suffolk County district attorney’s office and was attempting to serve a subpoena on the person who had called police.

SOUTHAMPTON VILLAGE — A Hill Street resident reported to police on November 12 that two expensive purses had gone missing from her home sometime before November 6. The woman reported that the only people who had access to the home since she last saw the bags were a housekeeper and carpenter, who she had ruled out as responsible for their disappearance, and a friend who stayed at the house in late October.

SOUTHAMPTON VILLAGE — Village Police were flagged down on November 16 by a Main Street store owner who had detained a man that had attempted to steal a leather jacket. The man, Ivan Munjic, 42, of New York City was arrested and charged with grand larceny in the third degree and criminal possession of stolen property in the fourth degree, both felonies.

SOUTHAMPTON VILLAGE — The manager of a Snow White Laundry on County Road 39 in Southampton reported to police on November 16 that when she arrived at work that morning she had discovered that one of the business’s windows appeared to have been damaged by a gun shot.

SOUTHAMPTON VILLAGE — The manager of a village business reported to police on November 16 that he had just discovered that a check for $8,692 he had written in September to his employee’s health insurance provider had been intercepted, “washed” and re-written in the name of Terrence King and cashed at a bank in Texas.

SOUTHAMPTON — A Shinnecock Hills Road resident reported to Town Police on November 11 that a set of dumbbells and a television valued at about $980 had been stolen from her living room. The woman reported that she was in the process of moving out of the house when she noticed the items missing.

BRIDGEHAMPTON — A Sagg Road resident reported a suspicious person on their property with a flashlight. A responding officer encountered the man, who told the officer he was a neighbor and had entered the property to take three planks of wood from a scrap pile. The property owner told the officer that he had not given anyone permission to enter the property or take anything. The man was charged with trespassing, a violation, and released with an order to appear in court at a later date.

BRIDGEHAMPTON — A Butter Lane business owner reported to Town Police on November 9 that $68,907 had been transferred from his bank account to another unknown account. The man told police that he’d been contacted via phone by a man who claimed to be an employee of Citibank informing him that someone in Texas had gained unauthorized access to his account and made several purchases and asked that the man provide access codes to his account in order to assist in rectifying the problem.

BRIDGEHAMPTON — A Maple Lane business reported to Southampton Town Police on November 12 that its bookkeeper had discovered that a check for $3,176.74 written in September to the company’s health insurance provider had been intercepted, “washed” and rewritten to a new payable individual and cashed on September 13.

BRIDGEHAMPTON — A Montauk Highway business owner reported to police on November 12 that a check from the business written in September had been cashed later that month by someone other than the intended party.

HAMPTON BAYS — A security guard at the Macy’s store reported to police that a woman known to employees to have stolen goods previously entered the store at about 2:30 p.m. on November 6 and began grabbing armloads of clothing, irrespective of size. An employee and a store manager approached the woman and asked her if they could assist her with bringing her purchases to the register area, which she refused. The security guard said the woman entered a fitting room with approximately 20 items of clothing and two bags she had come into the store with. When she emerged, she was carrying no clothing items but both her bags appeared to be stuffed. The woman then grabbed several other items and paid for them at the register and left the store. The security guard alerted police who confronted the woman, Katrina Lohr Lofstad, 43, of Hampton Bays, and charged her with petit larceny, a misdemeanor.

FLANDERS — Southampton Town Police arrested Michael Copenhaver, 61, of Flanders on November 6 and charged him with menacing in the second degree, a misdemeanor, after another person reported that he had pulled out a knife and threatened to cut the second man after they were involved in an argument at the entrance to the 7-Eleven convenience store on Flanders Road.

SPEONK — A Montauk Highway business was broken into early on the morning of November 7. When employees arrived just before 5 a.m. they found that the front door had been damaged and that approximately $1,500 had been taken from two cash registers. Police said review of security camera footage showed a man in dark sweatpants and sweatshirt had broken the front door glass with a hammer shortly before 3:30 a.m. and gone behind the counter and pried open the registers before leaving the scene.

EAST QUOGUE — A Lakewood Avenue resident reported to police on November 11 that someone had scratched both driver’s side door of her vehicle while it was parked over night at her residence.

HAMPTON BAYS — A woman reported to police on November 15 that she had been contacted by an unknown man who claimed to be calling from the Federal Trade Commission, requesting that she empty her three bank accounts because her personal information had been compromised. He told her he would secure the money and enter it into a new bank account for her. The woman removed $28,000 from three separate banks and put the money into an envelope, along with five Walmart gift cards, and delivered it to an unknown woman she met in the parking lot of Planet Fitness. She reported to police that the woman took the envelope and left the area on foot.

RIVERSIDE — Jacinto Galarza-Espejo, 21, of Hampton Bays was arrested by Southampton Town Police shortly before midnight on November 15 and charged with driving while impaired by drugs, a misdemeanor, after he was pulled over for speeding and erratic driving on County Road 51. The officer detected the smell of cannabis emanating from the vehicle and observed a burnt marijuana cigarette in the vehicle’s ashtray. Police said driver performed poorly on a field sobriety test and was placed under arrest.