- On Feb. 21, Southold police responded to a report of a vehicle on fire on CR 48. The driver, a North Carolina man, told police he was driving east when he heard a pop and his vehicle started scraping the pavement. He said he pulled over and observed that the vehicle had caught fire near the front driver’s side tire. A responding officer tried in vain to extinguish the blaze, before Southold firefighters put out the flames. Three days earlier, another Southold police officer responded to a report of a dirt bike on fire on Main Road, which was extinguished by Southold firefighters by the time the officer arrived. The owner of the bike, a Southold 18-year-old, told police he started up the dirt bike and it began to emit smoke before catching fire.
- On Feb. 22, Tracy Wenzler, 58, of Flagler Beach, Fla. was arrested for alleged driving while intoxicating after driving her BMW through hedges in a parking lot of a vineyard on Oregon Road in Mattituck. According to police, Ms. Wenzler told a responding officer that she accidentally hit the accelerator instead of the brake. The officer reported that Ms. Wenzler had red, glassy eyes and was unsteady on her feet.
- On Feb. 25, a Greenport woman reported being the victim of an immigration scam, according to Southold police. The woman told authorities that she had paid a “lawyer” named Suzanne Vasquez, who purported to be in Miami, $2,720 via the Zelle app to begin the process of seeking U.S. citizenship. She said she provided the person with all of her personal information, including her Social Security number, before realizing that the documents she was given and the websites she was directed to were fraudulent. The police detectives’ bureau was notified.
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 The charges against them may later be reduced or withdrawn, or they may be found innocent.