Police Log

Posted 9/25/12

The Police Log is a digest of reports filed by the Warwick Police. OBSTRUCTED Det. Thomas DiGregorio reported he was doing a patrol shift around 3:15 a.m. on Sept. 17 when he came upon an SUV idling …

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Police Log

Posted

The Police Log is a digest of reports filed by the Warwick Police.

OBSTRUCTED
Det. Thomas DiGregorio reported he was doing a patrol shift around 3:15 a.m. on Sept. 17 when he came upon an SUV idling in the roadway on Sea View Drive near Suburban Parkway. He said there was a man behind the wheel with his eyes closed who did not respond to knocking on the window. DiGregorio said he was able to reach in, turn off the vehicle, and remove the keys and a cell phone from the man’s hand without any reaction at all. He said he had to shout and violently shake the man’s body to get his attention. DiGregorio said he didn’t smell of alcohol but was definitely disoriented and knew he was in Warwick but not where in Warwick. He said he claimed he had no identification and gave him personal information that was changing from moment to moment and told him he did not recall his Social Security number except that it ended in 0778.
He said other officer arrived on the scene and he traced the plates on the vehicle to its owner on Oniska Street. He said the driver changed his story about why he had the car a couple of times as well. He said all of the stories were voided when they spoke with the man’s aunt, who told police she let him use the vehicle and her debit card to put gas in it. DiGregorio said he gave her back the keys to the SUV, her debit card and $35 the driver took from an ATM. He said the driver admitted later that he had taken two Xanax earlier and that must have made him fall asleep. DiGregorio said he did find out who the driver was, Thomas J. Tucker, 32, of 32 Oniska St., Warwick, and that there were warrants out for him, including a Warwick arrest warrant for eluding and obstructing police from the day before and failure to appear for a sentencing hearing for an East Greenwich robbery charge and a warrant for failure to appear for sentencing for a breaking and entering charge in Richmond. He was taken to headquarters and held for the next session of District Court.

CREDIT FRAUD
Officer Jacob Elderkin reported he was dispatched to the Sears store at Rhode Island Mall on Sept. 18 for a shoplifting suspect in custody. Loss prevention told Elderkin an electronics associate called loss prevention earlier for a suspected fraud. The associated said a man came to checkout with a very expensive laptop and surround sound speaker system and attempted to buy it with a credit card while using a New York driver’s license that looked faked and lacked the required hologram. He said he saw the man pacing nervously as they checked the credit card and saw him take a USB thumb drive and conceal it in his waistband. Elderkin said he was told the man then went back to the cashier and said he had to get something out of his car and walked out of the store and was stopped in the vestibule and brought back to the office after he attempted to discard the thumb drive in his waistband. He said they recovered a number of credit cards from the suspect that appeared to be fraudulent. He said they recovered identification from the suspect that one of the agents recognized from an organized fraud ring they got a bulletin about. Elderkin said his own inquiries about the cards found on the suspect resulted in them being identified as fraudulent. The suspect was identified as Misael Santana, 41, of 2930 Old Tampa Highway, Lakeland, Fla. He was charged with credit card fraud and obstruction and held for arraignment they next day.

POSSESSION
Officer John Larivee reported he was dispatched to an accident at the Fur Seasons Apartments at 1445 Warwick Ave. around 12:20 p.m. on Sept. 18 for an accident. Dispatch said a Mercury Milan with Massachusetts plates struck a cement parking block and the car was still stuck on the block. The caller also reported that the driver “did not appear right.” He said Sgt. Scott Robillard was the first on the scene and he told Larivee the driver was chewing something and he told him to spit it out. He said they could not immediately identify what it was but they suspected it was drugs and the driver appeared to be impaired. He said the driver was sweating and nervous and his eyes were dilated and his movements were rapid and even though he was unsteady on his feet. He claimed he didn’t know what the drugs were but that he bought them in Providence. Larivee said there was an empty pill bottle and some pills scattered on the floor of the car and there was a lot of money strewn about the interior. He said they found two baggies, one empty, in his wallet that appeared to be cocaine and another empty baggie behind the driver’s seat. He said they also found a number of other items that looked like they had been adapted for taking drugs, like an inhaler and a fake cigarette. He said Rescue arrived and determined that the driver was not in any medical danger but that the driver gradually seemed to be getting over the drugs as the investigation continued. He said they found a pamphlet from the 14th Annual Wormtown Music Festival that ran from Sept. 14 through Sept. 16. He said he asked the driver if he knew where he was and the man said “Massachusetts” and said “Monday” when asked what day it was. Larivee also said he told the man he was in Warwick and then asked him why he was in Rhode Island and the man replied that he “takes care of a kid in Providence” but provided no other details. Larivee said they gathered up $326 in cash from the car, along with an expensive large screen Alienware laptop ($2,549 retail). Robert A. Riley, 28, of 24 Chauncy St., Cambridge, Mass., was charged with possession of cocaine and later released on $2,000 surety bail. Larivee said they could not charged him with DUI because no witnesses actually saw him driving the car and only came out after the impact.

BULLET HOLE?
Officer Daniel DiMaio reported that he and three other officers were dispatched to an auto service business on Elmwood Avenue around 12:40 a.m. on Sept. 18 for a report of an alarm. He said they arrived to find the third window from the right front of the building had a hole about the size of a bullet with “spider webbing” surrounding it. He said they did a brief search of the building interior and found that the projectile that made the hole was now lodged in the back wall. He said the owners of the business arrived and confirmed that the “bullet hole” was new and the suspected projectile lodged in the wall were not there the last time they were at the property. He said they checked the security footage for the property but learned no more about the incident. DiMaio said the report was forwarded to detectives to have the projectile removed and examined.

BIG FAKES
A Barrington doctor advised Officer Albert Marano that any prescriptions from his office that were on a full sheet of paper were fake, according to Marano’s arrest report for a Barrington resident who is charged with presenting just such a script at the CVS in Meadowbrook on Sept. 13. Marano said he and two other officers set up a perimeter around the drug store when they got word that a man who placed a prescription for 90 Oxycontin pills in the 30mg size earlier that day was back at the pharmacy to pick up the drugs. Marano said the man had not yet picked up the drugs but was at the pharmacy. Marano said Sgt. Scott Robillard approached the man, who admitted he was there to pick up the prescription but had been “spooked” and started to walk away from the store. The doctor told Marano that this was just the latest of a number of instances when prescriptions said to be from him had been presented in Pawtucket, Cranston and nearby parts of Massachusetts. The doctor told Marano the Tiverton Police found some of the phony full-sized sheets in a dumpster in their town and he asked if the one presented in Meadowbrook was that size. When Marano told him it was, he asserted that he only used the smaller prescription pads for patients in his clinic and any full-size sheets were phony on the face of it. He also offered to provide Marano with any other assistance he needed to prosecute the case and that he wished to press charges against Joel LaFrance, 27, of 129 Metropolitan Park Dr., Barrington. Marano said LaFrance insisted he was acting alone but material from the Barrington doctor led Marano to other doctors and other suspects who were using the phony prescriptions forms and forging various names that directly or indirectly came back to the same set of forms and suspects within the past few weeks. LaFrance was charged with false representations to obtain controlled substances. The report was forwarded to the Rhode Island Attorney General’s office.

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  • davebarry109

    Where are the FUR Seasons Apartments?

    Tuesday, September 25, 2012 Report this

  • BobbyTownsend

    They are located at 1445 Warwick Avenue

    Tuesday, September 25, 2012 Report this