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WESTHAMPTON BEACH — On December 11 at 5:17 a.m., a 36-year-old Philadelphia man was cited for leaving the scene of an accident with property damage, a violation, after a Westhampton Beach Village Police officer said police observed a downed street sign and then reviewed village cameras, which showed the man had collided with a yield sign at Potunk Lane and Main Street a day earlier. The man stated to police that he was driving an oversized vehicle and was unaware that he had run over the sign.
WESTHAMPTON BEACH — On December 11 at 4:49 p.m. Westhampton Beach Village Police arrested Kenneth Biondi, 49, of East Moriches and charged him with first-degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, a felony. Biondi had been pulled over at the Lidl grocery store for inadequate headlights, and it was revealed that he had 32 suspensions on his license, and an active warrant from Southold Town Police. He was turned over to Southold Town Police.
WESTHAMPTON BEACH — On December 13 at 10:34 a.m., Westhampton Beach Village Police responded to a call from a man who said his vehicle had been struck by another car while attempting to make a turn into the TD Bank on Montauk Highway. The driver who caused the accident fled the scene. The caller said that he had been struck by a white four-door sedan traveling west in the right lane that had attempted to make a U-turn. The driver pulled over momentarily before fleeing the scene. There were no injuries reported.
SOUTHAMPTON — A Majors Path resident reported to Southampton Town Police on December 10 that at about 2 p.m. he was at his home awaiting the delivery of packages from Amazon. When he heard a car door slam he looked outside and saw a Budget rental van pulling out of his driveway. At the same time he got a notification from Amazon that his packages had been delivered but when he went out to retrieve them, they were not there. He told police that he simply needed to document the incident and get a copy of the police report to get a refund from Amazon.
SOUTHAMPTON — Southampton Town Police were called to the scene of a road rage incident on Tuckahoe Lane on the morning of December 13. Police said that a Southampton teenager, who was a passenger in a car, got into a verbal altercation with Jesus Mora-Hernandez, 51, of Hampton Bays and that Mora-Hernandez had opened the door of the car the victim was in, pulled him out of the vehicle and punched him, then held a screw driver up over his head as if he was going to stab the victim. Mora-Hernandez admitted to police that he’d struck and threatened the teen and told them that he had been stopped in the roadway momentarily to talk to his wife, who was in another car going in the opposite direction, and that while they were talking the vehicle with the teen in it had pulled up behind him and started yelling at him, causing him to lose his temper and confront the teenager. He is charged with menacing in the second degree, menacing in the third degree and criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree with intent to use, all misdemeanors.
SOUTHAMPTON — A 45-year-old East Quogue man was arrested by Southampton Town Police on December 15 and charged with assault in the third degree, a misdemeanor, after police were called to a County Road 39 business with a report of an altercation between co-workers. One of the men told police that his co-worker, Murat Ilgin, had been late to work, sparking an argument in which Ilgin grabbed him by the shirt and pushed him backward, causing him to hit his head and leaving him with a laceration over his eye.
WESTHAMPTON — A man who recently inherited a South Road property reported to Southampton Town Police on December 10 that there had been a burglary at the house last April, when an unknown person or persons entered the house by breaking a sliding glass door and had gone into the basement and cut away extensive copper piping that had been associated with the plumping and heating system in the house — leaving the home’s water supply running, filling the basement with water. When the man inherited the house he received an $11,000 bill from the Suffolk County Water Authority for the extensive use of water — which the SCWA had then shut off, realizing there was a pipe break. The cost to repair the plumbing was $8,200, the man told police.
RIVERSIDE — A Ludlam Avenue resident reported to Southampton Town Police on December 9 that someone had broken into his car at some time the previous night while it was parked in his driveway and stolen several items, including a credit card, which showed no subsequent fraudulent charges.
FLANDERS — An employee at a Flanders Road business reported to Southampton Town Police on December 9 that at about 2:30 p.m. the day before a man came into the store and stole a donation box for collecting money to feed the homeless that was on the store’s counter. The incident was not reported to police until the following day when the employee recognized the same man come into the store again. The employee called police but the man had left by the time officers arrived and they were unable to locate him in the surrounding area. The man was described as Black, wearing a black jacket and faded jeans.
HAMPTON BAYS — An East Hampton resident reported to Southampton Town Police on December 10 that an unknown person had stolen $12,440 from him under the false pretense of having been a representative of the real estate website Zillow and contracting the man to rent an apartment in Hampton Bays. In order to secure the lease on the apartment he was asked to pay $1,940 for a background check, which he paid using Zelle, then a $1,600 deposit and then $3,400 for insurance — all of which he paid using a digital bar code sent to him in a text message that was scanned at the Hampton Bays 7-Eleven store. After still not being allowed to see the apartment, the man asked for a refund, and was told by the purported Zillow employee that if he made another $3,600 payment he could move into the apartment immediately, using the bar code again. Three days later he was told by the person that there had been a mistake and he would have to remit another $2,600, which he again paid, via Western Union. When the person then told him that he would have to send another $4,000, he realized he was being scammed and contacted police, who are investigating.
HAMPTON BAYS — A woman reported to Southampton Town Police that she had been scammed out of $9,000 by a person claiming to work for PayPal. The person told her that a fraudulent purchase had been made on her account and that it could be reversed, but that he would need $9,000 in cash — which she handed over to a man who came to her home on December 11.
WESTHAMPTON — A resident reported to Southampton Town Police on December 12 that her car had been broken into and rummaged through while parked at the Speonk train station since December 8. She said nothing appeared to have been taken from the car but the cost to repair the window was $419.
