Car Chase Leads to Overturned SUV in Murray Hill

Murray Hill was the scene of a high-speed car chase at 1 am on January 18 that ended with an overturned car on Birch Lane. Police spotted a speeding Mercury SUV driving south on the Post Road at 1 am on Wednesday January 18th. The policeman tried to stop the car at Post and Olmsted Road but the driver failed to cooperate, so the policeman turned on the cruiser’s emergency lights and siren and pursued the speeding car.

The Mercury swerved between the right and left lanes as it sped down the Post Road and them turned left onto Richbell, onto Lakin Road and finally turned into Birch Lane at the end of Lakin Road. As the police car pulled into the driveway of 7 Birch Lane he heard a loud crash and pulled around to find that the Mercury had rolled over onto its roof.

He found a male passenger in the car, strapped in by a seatbelt, upside down in the car. He was dazed and did not respond. The female driver of the car was also upside down in the car, held in by a seatbelt. More police, SVAC and the fire department arrived and were able to stabilize the car and extract the two from the car.

The driver identified herself as Vivian Arkanmachado Bottino, age 27 of 21 Tunstall Road and the passenger was identified as Mark Matthias, also age 27 of 21 Tunstall Road. The driver turned out to be drunk and admitted to drinking vodka at the Black Bear in White Plains. Mathias, who also appeared to be drunk, was described by the police as “agitated and belligerent.” Bottino and Matthias were taken by ambulance to Westchester Medical Center. Matthias was not injured but Bottino had pain in her head due to a contusion. Bottino freely admitted to drinking earlier that night and submitted to an alco-sensor and a blood tests. After being evaluated, Matthias was released. However, when Bottino was released from the hospital, she was handcuffed and driven back to police headquarters where she was charged with:

• Criminal mischief, reckless property damage greater than $250
• Speeding
• Failure to keep to the Right on a 2-Lane Road
• Reckless driving
• Failure to yield right of way to an emergency vehicle
• Reckless endangerment
• Driving while intoxicated
• Unlawful fleeing of a police officer in a motor vehicle

At 1:25 in the afternoon, Bottino was arraigned before Judge Galloway at Village Court, given a court date of February 15 and released on her own recognizance.

Theft: A heating contractor, at work at a home on Park Road in Scarsdale reported that tools, valued at $1,200 were stolen from the house overnight on Tuesday January 17- Wednesday January 18. As the house is under construction, it is unlocked at night.

Missing: A worried Brewster Road mom called police at 6 pm on 1/17 when she couldn’t locate her 14 year-old son. Following an argument about his cell phone usage, the boy left the house. She subsequently reached the boy on his cell phone and picked him up at Fox Meadow School.

In a new twist in identity theft, a Johnson Road woman reported that one of her checks was “washed” and rewritten to use for payment for an item on Ebay. On January 2, while in Las Vegas, the Scarsdale woman mailed a check for $40 to her credit card company to pay a bill. However the check never reached it’s intended destination. Instead, someone intercepted it, and changed the payee name and amount and use it to pay for an item on Ebay. It is not know whether the check was ever cashed. The incident was reported on 1/16.

On January 17 a Nelson Road woman reported that three credit cards had been stolen from her wallet and used to make unauthorized purchases. Whoever stole the Nordstrom Visa and American Express cards used them to make purchases on January 17 between 5 and 10 pm.

On 1/20, a Ridgecrest West man reported that someone had used his identity to open credit cards at Victoria’s Secret and Justice and make purchases totaling $1,500 on the cards between 12/11 and 12/24/11.

Olmstead Road residents were defrauded of over $20,000 due to unauthorized charges on their credit cards. A review of their online banking account revealed over $20,000 in charges on their bankcard with $4,000 in purchases from Bloomingdales.

Last, noticing that his bank account balance was lower than expected, a Reimer Road man went to the Bank of America at the Golden Horseshoe on 1/20 and found that $9,000 had been transferred out of his account without his permission. One transfer for $4,500 was made to another bank and two transfers, totaling $4,500 were transferred to an E-Trade account.

Spinning: Just before midnight on 1/16, police received a call about two cars, one red and one white, doing 360’s in the parking lot of Trinity Lutheran Church on Crane Road. By the time police arrived, the cars were gone.

Errant Paper: On January 18, a Sycamore Road woman came to Village Hall to complain that she was receiving a copy of the Journal News Express in her driveway every Thursday thought she is not a subscriber. Police called the Journal News subscription office who found that the woman was not a subscriber. They promised to follow-up with the delivery company to cease the service.

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