Town Police Log: Police Catch Two Riverhead Men Breaking Into Garage

Burglary

Two Riverhead men were arrested in Flanders Friday after detectives allegedly discovered them trying to steal a jukebox and other items from a garage.

Police said they received a call about two men loading a pickup truck with items from a Maple Avenue garage on Oct. 28 at around 3:45 p.m. When they arrived at the scene they spotted Jerome Trent, 56, and Jonathan Downing, 48, both of Riverhead, putting a jukebox and other metal items in the truck, according to a police report.

The men told police they were helping clean up the property, police said. Town detectives said they discovered the men actually intended to take the items to a scrap yard for money. Trent and Downing were arrested and each charged with third-degree burglary, a felony.

Larceny

Two men in the Oak Avenue neighborhood in Flanders told police that someone had stolen fuel from their trucks.

A 49-year-old Flanders man who lives on Oak Avenue told Town Police that sometime between 7 p.m. on Oct. 27 and 10 a.m. on Oct. 28 someone siphoned gas from the tank of his 1997 Chevy pickup truck, police said. The man heard his dogs barking at around 2:30 a.m. Friday, and let them out into his yard, but didn’t see anything suspicious, according to a police report

When he woke up the next morning, he saw an empty gas can near his truck, police said. He the man also said he saw that his tank, which he filled up the day before, was missing 15 gallons of gas.

A 30-year-old Flanders man, who lives on Brookhaven Avenue, told Town Police that someone took a five gallon jug of diesel gas from the bed of his 1971 pickup between midnight and 7 a.m. the same day. The jug was secured with a strap, and early Friday morning the man found a school identification card on property near his truck, according to a police report.

Burglary

A 42-year-old man from Flanders told Town Police that on October 19 between 4:45 p.m. and 7 p.m., someone broke into his Cypress Avenue home by pushing in the air conditioner in the rear window and stole two laptops worth $1,000, a Playstation worth $300, a Nintendo Wii worth $250 and a water jug with $75 in coins. Police said they are investigating.

Criminal Trespass

Anthony Francis, 28, of Riverhead was arrested Oct. 22 at police headquarters in Hampton Bays and charged with second-degree criminal trespass, a misdemeanor. On Oct. 10 at 10:20 a.m. Francis went into someone’s home on Pegs Lane in Riverside without permission, police said.