Chester Police Log for Oct. 9 to Dec. 7, 2015

© 2015 Telegraph Publishing LLC

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.

Thursday, Oct. 19, 1:23 p.m.

A man in the area of Trebo and Snell roads told officers that when he left the area between 9:30 and 11 a.m. someone took his chainsaw gasoline mix, 1 gallon of bar oil and a pair of pliers.

Saturday, Oct. 30, 8:38 a.m.

A Mattson Road area resident reported that three tires on her car had been slashed during the night. A responding officer could not find any footprints in the area but took photos of the scene. The victim did not have any suspects in mind, but said she would by the end of the day. This case remains active pending more information.

Saturday, Oct. 30,8:57 a.m.

An officer on traffic duty saw a driver spin his tires and recklessly cross a four-way intersection. The officer stopped the truck at the Grafton town line. He was familiar with the operator, knowing him to be on probation. The man’s probation officer said he had been doing extremely well. The Chester officer told the probation officer that he would give him a chance on this infraction.

Monday, Nov. 2, 9:47 a.m. 

A complainant reported that someone had knocked her mailbox off the post and put a big dent in it. She set the value of the mailbox at $50 and noted that she had checked the area and none of the other mailboxes had been disturbed.

Monday, Nov. 2, 3:49 p.m.

Police responded to an industrial building on Route 11 for the report of a burglary. A number of tools and machinery had been taken and subsequently the police received a tip from Springfield police that a resident in that town had reported being offered “tools for cheap” by two men who were suspects in a number of burglaries. The man told police that he had been contacted and bought a few items from the pair. SEE NOV 23 INCIDENT

Wednesday, Nov. 4, 10:57 p.m.

Police received a report of a vehicle being operated erratically as it passed Lisai’s Market on Depot Street and reportedly hitting a sign. An officer went to the home of the driver, finding the car idling in the driveway with a passenger waiting in the car and the operator in the house.  Consenting to a breath test, the operator blew .000% . The officer determined that the operator had hit a temporary construction sign in the shape of diamond, reading “Motorcycles use caution.” It appeared to the officer that the sign had blown into the road on a very windy day.

Thursday, Nov. 5, 8:23 p.m.

A resident of the Mountain View area reported hearing a gunshot. While leaving the neighborhood, the responding officer saw a firework in the distance on Green Mountain Turnpike. The officer determined the offending house and contacted the residents, only to find they were having a birthday party. The officer advised that they should stop with the fireworks.

Saturday, Nov. 7, 9:53 a.m.

A complainant on Main Street told police that she is finding needles on her lawn. She suspects her neighbor who is “an active user.”

Tuesday, Nov. 10, 7:26 a.m.

Police received a report that a wide load was parked in front of the Country Girl Diner, blocking access to customers. There was no one with the truck.  When an officer arrived, the driver told him that someone at the Sunoco had given him permission to park there because the business had closed down. The officer told the driver that the diner had not “closed down” and that he believed the driver was lying. The driver was told that he should move along.

Wednesday, Nov. 11, 1:04 a.m.

Dispatch advised  that there was the report of a loose cow in the area of Crow Hill and Flamstead roads. The call was left to be handled by the day shift.

Thursday, Nov. 12, 9:55 a.m.

A resident asked the police department to provide him with ink for a thumb print that he needed to send to become a guardian for a juvenile overseas. No one could understand what he was talking about, but police provided him with the ink and the man gave some papers to the town clerk’s office for reasons known only to him. Those papers were placed on file with this report.

Thursday, Nov. 12,8:16 p.m.

Received call for on-going issue at HCRS house on Popple Dungeon Road. A client had locked herself in a car and called 911. HCRS staff said they did not need a response, but would call back if they did.

Friday, Nov. 13, 6:28 p.m.

Staff at the TD Bank called to report a suspicious van parked in its lot with the engine running for about half an hour. They were closing the bank, but concerned about going into the parking lot. The van had valid Pennsylvania plates and the driver said he was working for Direct TV and had been searching his phone for a good place to eat. He settled on the Black Rock Steakhouse in Springfield and left.

Monday, Nov. 16, 3:34 p.m.  

The Chester Fire Department was called out for a grass fire on Popple Dungeon Road. The police department was advised by dispatch that there had been complaints about a car driving around firing off bottle rockets.

There had also been a small brush fire on Grafton Street about 45 minutes earlier and a small grass fire on Church Street a week earlier, where a bottle rocket was found. Rockets were found at the site of the Grafton Street fire as well as along Popple Dungeon Road. Police began an investigation and were shortly contacted by an administrator from Green Mountain Union High School who had been approached by students who told him they had been involved but did not intend to set fires.

An officer spoke with four juveniles and their parents and confirmed that they had been responsible. In the course of the investigation information about a rash of mailbox vandalism was produced pointing toward other juveniles.  Police discussed the limited charges available with the Windsor County States Attorney’s office and decided not to prosecute although, according to Chief Richard Cloud, restitution for the cost of fighting the fires was part of that decision.

Tuesday, Nov. 17, 5:26 p.m.

Police received a complaint of a woman with an aggressive dog at a business on School Street. According to the complainant, the woman has a German Shepherd that is very aggressive and was threatening to a child. When the officer approached her, her speech became agitated and she began speaking in other languages. The woman lives in the area and has had run-ins with the professional offices in the building where she lives. She says she feels threatened by drug dealers and often speaks about being sodomized. The officer told her to stay away from those offices and to bring any complaints to the police. The woman’s landlord told police that he has spoken with his lawyer about evicting the woman but he is sensitive to her mental health issues and wants to find any family members who could care for her. The landlord was told to contact Det. Matt Wilson, who had dealt with the woman in the past.

Wednesday, Nov. 18, 12:39 p.m.

Det. Matt Wilson was contacted by the landlord of a woman who has been behaving erratically and whose dog has been aggressive toward people. Wilson spoke with a number of people in the woman’s building, who confirmed that she has gotten more difficult and that they feel threatened by her dog. Wilson also received information that the woman has stopped taking medications and is treating her condition “holistically.”

Police spoke with the woman’s father, who is worried that her mental health is deteriorating and that she is becoming increasingly paranoid. She had disconnected electrical items in her apartment, pulled out overhead lighting fixtures and dismantled the electric stove. The woman told police that she has trained her German Shepherd as an attack dog to protect her. Police cited the woman for disorderly conduct.

On subsequent days, Chester police took statements from a number of business owners and residents in the area of the Green. Most statements told of encounters in which staff and customers felt intimidated by the woman’s behavior. An officer who visited her apartment was afraid that she could be a danger to herself. By Dec. 6, several business owners had asked for orders against trespass for their premises. One business owner found her to be very disoriented and unable to speak English.  In consultation with the court, a Chester officer cited the woman to appear the following day. SEE DEC 7 INCIDENT

Thursday, Nov. 19, 4:32 p.m.

A woman contacted Rockingham dispatch to say that her grandfather had found several checks missing from his checkbook after his bank had told him he was over drawn. The checks were cashed by a man who rents a room from the victim.

The man admitted to cashing the checks and was in possession of a blank check. He explained that he was addicted to heroin and wanted to get into rehab. He apologized to the victim, expressing remorse for his actions. The officer, noting how cooperative the man, was said he would recommend rehab to the court as a condition of release. The man was processed and housed at Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield for lack of $500 bail.
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Monday, Nov. 23, 12:36 p.m.

Responding to a report that a suspect in a recent rash of burglaries was at a house on Route 10, a Chester officer was told that the subject had left the area and gone to North Springfield. The resident at the house said that the subject was there to sell him a shotgun. On the probability that the gun was stolen, the officer seized it and placed it with the Chester Police Department pending identification of the victim.

Sunday, Nov. 29, 3:30 p.m.

A Chester officer was telling a resident about property from recent burglaries that might be for sale. The resident said he had not bought anything from the subjects that the officer had named, but had purchased a brush mower for $800 from someone during the summer.  According to the resident, the seller had told him that the mower was not stolen, and that he had bought it in good faith. Cross-referencing the serial number with police reports from Ludlow, the officer found that the mower was in fact stolen earlier in 2015. The officer picked up the mower and secured it with the town.

Chester police also received information that the two men who had burglarized a building  on Nov. 2 were at a house on River Street in Springfield. They found both men in that area and one confessed to the Nov. 2 break-in as well as other burglaries, saying that most of the property stolen had gone to a pawn shop in Newport, N.H. The men were processed for the crimes and one was held on $3,000 bail.
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Monday Dec. 7, 8 a.m.

An innkeeper found a disoriented woman in a room at the inn. It appeared that the woman had let herself in after the innkeeper had gone to bed. The woman, who had been cited into court on that day for disorderly conduct and simple assault, had unplugged many electrical devices, taken down curtains, strewn blankets and pillows around throughout the inn, eaten food set out for guests and slept in the inn.