Crime & Safety

Crimes Nearby: Men Wanted for Swiping Crest Whitening Products, Cops Say

Suffolk County Crime Stoppers is offering a reward of up to $5,000.

The following information was supplied by the East End police departments and the Suffolk County police. A criminal charge is only an accusation and does not indicate guilt.

RIVERHEAD

• Police are asking for the public's help to help identify and locate three men who stole merchandise from a Riverhead Target last month.

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Police said the three men entered the Target, located at 1150 Old Country Road, on the afternoon of Nov. 7 and stole all of the Crest Whitening products on display. The value of the stolen merchandise is $1,869, police said.

Suffolk County Crime Stoppers offers a cash reward of up to $5,000 for information that leads to an arrest. Anyone with information about this crime is asked to call anonymously to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-220-TIPS.

Find out what's happening in North Forkwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

• Four people spent Thanksgiving Eve behind bars after they were charged with driving drunk in Riverhead, police said.

Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota's East End DWI Task Force was deployed Wednesday night, Riverhead Town police said.

The operation began at 4 a.m. and lasted until 8 a.m. Thanksgiving morning, police said; officers from Riverhead, Westhampton Beach, and Suffolk County police participated.

• A Riverhead man was arrested on Nov. 27 in connection with a break-in at Charlie’s Quality Collision on County Route 104 in Flanders. According to police, Brian Flores, 20, was taken into custody at around 10 p.m. after he allegedly broke into the business moments before.

At around 9:50 p.m., police responded to an automatic alarm at Charlie’s and discovered the forced entry. Police searched the interior of the business and the surrounding area with the help of New York State Police and a Suffolk County Sheriff’s K-9 unit. After a continued search, police said they found Flores nearby. Police were unable to determine what, if anything, had been stolen.

Flores was charged with third-degree burglary, a felony. He was released on $1,500 bail on Nov. 28.

WESTHAMPTON-HAMPTON BAYS

• A Center Moriches man is accused of driving drunk on Nov. 30 after police said he sideswiped a marked police car that was performing a traffic stop on Montauk Highway in Eastport. According to police, Jhony Morente, 29, was driving a 1998 Ford near the intersection of Montauk Highway and Bay Avenue North at around 1:30 a.m. when he struck the police car. Police said they noticed an odor of alcohol on his breath and that he had slurred speech, bloodshot, glassy eyes and was unsteady on his feet.

Police conducted a field sobriety test, which he failed, and he blew a .18 on a breathalyzer test. Police said Morente also had multiple open Corona bottles in his vehicle and that he was driving on a revoked license without a court-required Interlock device. He was arrested at the scene and charged with DWI, a misdemeanor, felony aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle in the first degree, second-degree unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, a misdemeanor, circumventing an interlock device, moving lanes unsafely, failing to yield to an emergency vehicle and consuming alcohol in a motor vehicle, all violations.

EAST HAMPTON

• A 17-year-old Phoenix House resident was arrested on a felony assault charge after he threw a chair at another resident, which split his upper lip open and loosened an upper front tooth, East Hampton Town police said. 

Police were called to the Wainscott facility on Industrial Road on Nov. 26 at about 10:15 a.m. for an aided case. 

The victim, who was bleeding, told police he was about to sit down for a meal when his chair was pulled out from under him, causing him to fall on his butt. When he got up, he saw the defendant and thought he had pulled the chair away. The victim said he slid the chair across the floor toward the defendant, hitting him in the leg. That's when the defendant picked up the chair and threw it at him, hitting him in the face. 


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