Police Log for Jan. 4 to Feb. 10, 2013

Editor’s Note: The Chester Telegraph Police Log is a sampling of incidents directly from Chester Police reports. We do not identify individual victims of crimes nor those who have been arrested.

Friday, Jan. 4, 3:41 p.m.

About $600 in uncirculated $2 bills and Kennedy half dollars were reported taken from two cash registers at a Chester retail shop. Chester Police notified area banks of the serial numbers. A half-hour later, one bank called to say a man exchanged 34 new uncirculated $2 bills and $14 in Kennedy half-dollars. The man also told the teller he was available for odd jobs and gave his first name and cellphone number.

The next day, the suspect was located back at the theft location, where he implied that someone else gave him the money to exchange for regular currency, for which he received a “payment.” The suspect said, he “knew something was up” with the request and “I should have known better. I’m not a dumb criminal.”

He was charged with grand larceny. Based on two earlier failures to appear, the suspect was taken to Southern State Correctional Facility on a $10,000 bail.

The other person, a longtime employee, was questioned and officers found his denial credible.

Saturday, Jan. 5, 8:11 a.m.

The Chester Fire Department answered a call for a strong smell of gas on Quarry Road. The tanks were shut off and the owners were notified.

Friday, Jan. 11, 7:20 a.m.

Police were called to the Chester Hardware on Main Street where a tractor trailer with a 53-foot trailer had backed into a pickup truck in the parking lot.

The tractor-trailer driver said that, as he headed to New York on Route 11, he thought he had missed a turn and pulled into the hardware store parking lot to try to turn around. The driver said he thought he could drive around the back of the store but realized there wasn’t enough room. He then attempted to back up but struck the pickup truck. Damage to the pickup included a smashed passenger side tail-light, minor damage to the corner of the bumper and a scratch. No damage was seen on the tractor-trailer.

The officer found that the driver possessed a “K” restriction driver’s license, which means he cannot operate a commercial vehicle outside of Vermont. The driver said he was unaware of what the “K” meant, to which the officer replied that he had a hard time believing that someone with a class “A” CDL would not know what his restrictions are.

After giving the truck owner and the driver of the tractor-trailer copies of the Vermont Uniform Crash report so that they could exchange information, the officer stopped traffic to aid the tractor-trailer driver in backing his rig out of the parking lot. It took about 20 minutes, the officer reported, since he seemed not to be able to maneuver the vehicle well. After six tries, he was able to back into the bank parking lot across the street. He then said he would park at the Country Girl Diner and wait for his boss to respond. Five minutes later, he was gone.

Saturday, Jan. 20, 9:03 p.m.

Rockingham Dispatch called Chester police to report that a man, 36, had left a location on VT Rte. 103 South in Chester, was intoxicated and was driving a truck with an open container. The officer couldn’t find the truck, but then was radioed by a Springfield officer who said he found the vehicle, partially off a bridge to a driveway, parked at an extreme angle. It was running, but no one was in the cab.On the scene at Route 11 East, the Chester officer checked the brook to make sure the driver had not fallen into the water. Inside of the truck, the officer saw spilled liquid, a partially full glass of an orange juice drink with ice in the cup holder and half a gallon of vodka on the floor.

A tractor then came down the driveway, driven by the brother of the suspect. As the officer went up to the house, he noticed a shadowy figure walking through a field, then ordered the person to stop. The person did not, so the officer said he would Taser him if he did not. The man stopped, then “fell to the ground on his butt and put his hands in the air,” the police report says.

When the man complied with the officer’s request to stand up, the suspect fell backwards into the officer, who then caught him.

The man told police that someone may have been driving his truck, that he did not know who the person was, that the person could still be in the area and that he always lets strangers drive his truck.

The officer noted that despite the winds, he could still smell a “very strong odor of intoxicants” as the man spoke.

After sobriety tests, the man was arrested and taken to the Springfield Police Department, where he was processed on DUI charges.

Friday, Feb. 1, 3:55 p.m.

Officers responded to a complaint that a dog had been attacked by another dog. The dog’s owners said she and a friend were walking their dogs on Lovers Lane near the pulloff of the snowmobile trail when a couple and their two dogs left the trail. One large dog attacked her dog, she said. Her dog was being treated at the vet’s for lacerations to its back and a puncture wound to the shoulder.

The owner of the attacking dog said that all four dogs were off-leash and that his dog did not obey. The owner said he would pay the vet bills. He was then issued a written warning for his unrestrained canine.

Sunday, Feb. 3, 6:44 p.m.

A complainant who lives off the Weston-Andover Road requested that Chester police remove two people from his home, stating that some time ago he had allowed the people – whose names he could not remember – stay at his house. But, he said, they have “worn out their welcome.”  The complainant also said that while they did not pay rent, they had bought groceries. The officer told the complainant that he needed to go through the eviction process.

8:37 p.m.

A Chester Police officer assisted the Fire Department with a car fire on Trebo Road. When the officer arrived, a 2007 Subaru was engulfed in flames from the front seat forward. The owner said he and his wife were getting ready to go shopping when he used his remote starter to start the car from the house. A short time later, he heard the car alarm, looked outside and saw the car on fire. The owner said he used two fire extinguishers to no avail.

Sunday, Feb. 10, 5:40 p.m.

Chester Police responding to a call from Rockingham Dispatch came upon an off-duty sheriff’s deputy who was monitoring several cars off the road at Route 103 N. by the quarry. The deputy said he came upon multiple cars on the side of the road and stopped to see if everything was OK. A woman was passed out behind the wheel of a hybrid car. The deputy said witnesses had said they stopped to see if she was OK, but that she came to and drove forward about 50 feet before stopping. He added that there was front-end damage to the car.

The woman, 63, was unable to tell the Chester Police officer who she was and other questions were met with a blank stare. Finally she said she was trying to drive from Cavendish to South Reading. She added that she had consumed three small glasses of wine but thought she should not be driving. The Chester officer added that he smelled a “strong odor of intoxicants.”

When police asked the woman to get out of the car, she complied, but stumbled as she did so. She stumbled several more times as she went to the police cruiser with the officer. She also fell into a snowbank.

Police attempted a Breathalyzer test several times. All were unsuccessful either due to the cold temperatures or the woman’s inability to blow into the tube.

The woman was charged with driving under the influence and transported to the Rockingham Barracks, where she was processed, during which the woman changed her story and said she had been at a Ludlow establishment since 2 p.m. and was trying to go home. The woman was turned over to her husband.