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QUOGUE — Quogue Village Police arrested Steven Failla, 48, of Quogue on May 3 at 12:14 a.m. at Jessup Avenue and charged him with third-degree assault, a misdemeanor. The officers were responding to a physical dispute at a residence on Jessup Avenue. Officers on scene performed an investigation and subsequently arrested Failla, as the victim of the assault sustained a physical injury to a hand, police said. Failla was held for morning arraignment.
RIVERSIDE — A Wood Road Trail resident reported to Southampton Town Police that $17,000 dollars in cash was taken from a safe within her home sometime between March 30 and April 29 and that $800 in cash had also gone missing from the home during the day on April 29. Police are investigating.
SAGAPONACK — A Parsonage Lane resident narrowly averted being the victim of a scam to steal some $780,000 when a friend contacted police on May 1. Southampton Town Police say that the woman had been contacted by two individuals on April 29, one purporting to be an agent from the Department of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms and the other a Southampton police officer. The callers knew her Social Security number and driver’s license ID number and told her she was to be arrested for several outstanding warrants if she did not forward a large sum of money to the U.S. Treasury. The woman sold $780,000 in stock and had transferred it to a checking account when a friend became aware of the matter and warned her that it was scam and to contact the police.
HAMPTON BAYS — An Old Riverhead Road resident told Town Police on May 2 that $188,000 had been removed from his bank account without his permission. The money had been removed in five wire transactions over the previous six-day period. Police and the bank’s fraud department are investigating.
RIVERSIDE — A Mastic man was arrested on May 2 and charged with felony assault after police responded to a report of a stabbing incident on a Suffolk County Transit bus on County Road 51, near Lake Avenue. Officers were told the man had fled the bus on foot and found him running down the road nearby. He was found to be carrying a knife that had blood on it and a small quantity of cocaine. Rene Elias-Chaj, 23, of Mastic was arrested and charged with assault in the first degree, criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree and assault in the second degree, all felonies, and criminal possession of a controlled substance in the seventh degree, a misdemeanor. He was held for arraignment in Southampton Town Justice Court. The victim was taken to the hospital with non life-threatening injuries.
SOUTHAMPTON — A New York City man was arrested by Southampton Town Police on May 3 for driving a stolen car. Police were alerted by a license plate reader that detected the license plate of a vehicle that had previously been reported stolen. The car was located on County Road 39 and pulled over and the driver and a passenger detained. After investigating the matter police said that the car belonged to the driver’s sister, who had reported it stolen to the NYPD. The driver, Dylan Mitchell, 22, was charged with criminal possession of stolen property in the fourth degree, a felony. He was arraigned in Town Justice Court and released.
SPEONK — The owner of a house under construction on South Phillips Avenue reported that when she inspected the property on May 4 she found a rear door open and evidence that someone had been in the house. Police said they were already investigating a prior trespassing incident at the property. The owner asked that police conduct extra patrols in the area.
