Incident Reports: Hampton Bays Woman Wise to Scam

Crimes and suspicious incidents recently reported to the Southampton Town Police Department west of the Shinnecock Canal.

Hampton Bays Woman Wise to Scam

• A Hampton Bays woman told police May 16 that she was called that day at noon on her cellphone by a man claiming he was from a collection agency trying to collect an outstanding debt of around $750. The caller told her to get a Green Dot MoneyPak in the precise amount, scratch off   the card and call back with the card's number.

The women said she does not owe any money and was suspicious because of the method of payment requested.  

The MoneyPak website states, "If anyone else asks for your MoneyPak number or information from your receipt, it’s probably a scam. Don’t give your MoneyPak number to pay for something you buy through the classifieds or to collect a prize or sweepstakes. Do not give away your receipt information to another party either."

Larceny, Identity Theft

• A Hampton Bays women told police May 18 that on May 14 multiple unauthorized charges were made to her Chase account. She said she has a debit card from the Chase Bank in Hampton Bays, and never lost it. The bank reportedly told her that the account had been used multiple times, with the largest charge of $1,100.12 being made at Home Depot in Commack. The total charges were $1,628.10, and the bank is taking responsibility for the losses, the report states.

Grand Larceny

• A Riverside woman told police May 19 that sometime overnight someone stole her wallet, which was in her mother's unlocked vehicle parked in their driveway on Brown Street. The wallet contained a Bank of America debit card, a Union First Market Bank debit card, $130 cash and a New York driver's license.

• A Flanders man told police May 16 that sometime between the night of May 13 and the morning or May 14, someone entered an unlocked race-car trailer parked in front of his home and took a briefcase containing a $1,000 two-way radio.

Burglary

• A Flushing, Queens, man told police May 15 that sometime overnight someone entered his Flanders house on Temple Avenue by prying open a door and took an iPod and two flatscreen televisions.

• The former Turtle Bay night club on Montauk Highway in East Quogue was broken into and three Quest audio boxes valued at $2,500 were taken, according to an incident report. A Setauket man reported the burglary, though no time frame of when the incident occurred was given.

• A Westhampton man told police May 16 that sometime that day between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. someone entered his Montauk Highway home and took a Playstation 3, a 64-gigabyte iPod and eight Playstation 3 games.

• A Westhampton woman told police May 16 that at 8:40 p.m. she arrived home and heard a loud crash. She noticed the bathroom window was open and heard someone running to the rear of her property, She then found her jewelry boxes had been gone through, though only a Lennox jewelry box containing nothing of value was taken.  A Suffolk County sheriff's K9 unit and Suffolk County Police aviation responded but did not locate the suspect.

• A Remsenburg man told police May 15 that sometime during the previous two days someone pushed open a side door of his South Country Road home and took a Bose radio, a laundry detergent bottle, two or three bottles of wine, a bottle of Ketel One Vodka and a ceramic bowl.

• The owner of Hampton Nursery in Hampton Bays told police May 17 that an alarm went off May 16 at 10:02 p.m. at the business. There were no signs of forced entry, but he said he found that a desk drawer had been left open and $600 in bills and $250 in coins were missing.