Harassment, Robbery and Theft from the Scarsdale Police
- Details
- Hits: 8519
A New Rochelle man was charged with petit larceny on February 3rd for the theft of four two-packs of Right Guard deodorant. Rudy Arcara, age 54, was spotted by store employees as he was leaving CVS on Popham Road with the merchandise. The store manager contacted the police and described the suspect. Police found the man running down Scarsdale Road and brought the store manager to the scene to identify the suspect. Arcara was brought to police headquarters where he was charged and released on $100 bail.
A disturbed woman has been harassing the staff at the Hoff Barthelson School, where her three children have been enrolled for the past eight years. The woman, who has a history of psychiatric problems went to the home of one of the music schoolteachers, sent disturbing emails and displayed troubling behavior. Blaming her problems on the school, the South Salem resident has repeatedly bothered school employees who have asked for police intervention.
Intruders entered a Spier Road home through an unlocked basement door on February 3rd. They tossed the bedroom and took jewelry, including diamond earrings, a watch, two gold necklaces, a bracelet, gold cufflinks and studs, together valued at over $12,000. They left the home via a sliding glass door in the kitchen and when police followed their footprints in the snow they found a black cloth case, two leather wallets and a pair of underwear. Following the footprints further into the woods behind the home, police found four bottles of wine that had been taken from the resident’s refrigerator. The homeowner said that the found underwear was not hers – so perhaps the vandals had been elsewhere as well.
A Sheldrake Road woman reported that an unknown person attempted to open a Best Buy Credit Card account using her social security number and birthday on January 20th. She did not know how the person had gotten access to her personal data and had all of her credit cards and her driver’s license in her possession. In another case of identity theft, a fraudulent Sears MasterCard account was opened in the name of a Madison Road resident on 12/28.
A handyman noticed that someone may have entered a Drake Road home, and he called police on February 4th. The house has been vacant since last January when a gas explosion destroyed the interior. The homeowner was called and it was determined that ServPro had been contracted to do some work on the house. Since they could not get in, they removed some plywood boards covering a window and entered the house. The front door was securely padlocked and Police concluded that everything was intact.
Concerned parents on Black Birch Road called Police at 1 am on 2/7 to say that their 16 year-old daughter was missing. They had dropped her off at a friend’s house in White Plains at 2:30 the previous afternoon and spoken to her at 11 pm when she claimed to be at the Galleria. They had not been able to reach her since that time. Police got in touch with the girl at 1:30 am and she had returned home.
A Dan Sitomer of White Plains man went to the Post Office in Scarsdale Village at 3 pm on 2/1 to say that he had a problem with his car that was parked on Chase Road. He subsequently left there saying that he had cleared up the issue, but later that same day he appeared at police headquarters to say that he was unsure of the location of his keys. He claimed to have been in an accident on 1/29 when his car was parked at CVS in Mamaroneck, but later stated that he drove it to Scarsdale Village on 1/30. Police advised him to retrace his steps and to contact White Plains Police and White Plains hospital in an effort to recover his keys. On February 4th Sitomer was also reported making an unwanted visit to his daughter’s home on Greendale Road.
Armed Robbery on East Harstdale Avenue
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- Hits: 4938
An elderly man was robbed on Hartsdale Avenue when he was walking home on Saturday night around 10:40 pm. The victim reported that the robber was holding a pointed instrument. The hold-up occurred around 177 East Hartsdale Avenue. The victim described the robber as a light-skinned black male, around 5’8” tall and 170 pounds in weight who appeared to be in his mid-twenties. He was wearing a black jacket over a brown hoodie sweatshirt.
The elderly man lives in the Country Club Ridge Condominiums on Rockledge Road, adjacent to the site of the incident.
Anyone who has information about the crime is encouraged to contact the Greenburgh Police at 914-682-5300.
A Burglary, An Arrest and A Protest: The Police Report
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- Hits: 4639
Burglary: Old Lyme Road residents returned home around 6 PM on 1/18 and heard noises in the house. They quickly realized those sounds were footsteps from intruders in their house. When they heard someone coming downstairs the residents ran out through the garage and then heard a car drive off. A visiting uncle saw at least one white man drive off in a tan car towards Weaver Street. The vandals had entered through a door that leads to the garage and rummaged through most of the bedrooms. They kicked in a locked bedroom door to gain access and also went up to the attic. Though the victims have not put together a complete list of stolen items, jewelry was missing. The incident is being investigated by the Scarsdale Police.
Arrest: While on burglary patrol in Edgemont on Friday night 1/22, Greenburgh Police noted a suspicious car near Sheridan and Clayton Roads. The dark colored car had Connecticut plates and two men were sitting inside. Police watched the car and subsequently stopped it. One of the men in the car was found to have marijuana. The man, a twenty year-old Scarsdale resident, was arrested and charged with criminal possession of marijuana in the 4th degree. He was booked and given a court date to appear at the Town of Greenburgh Court on February 2nd.
Another Theft at LF: Three women came into LF, brought items into the dressing room to try on and left without buying anything at 4 pm on 1/23. When the store manager went into the dressing room, she noticed that a black tank top, valued at $78 was missing. Police did see the three ladies drive away in their car and will follow-up.
Protestors: A small group of anti-war protestors were holding a sign in front of Shaarei Tikvah Synagogue on the morning of 1/23. Police received a complaint and when they arrived, the protestors had already left.
Threatening Calls: A Wayside Road woman received three phone calls last week from a man who identified himself as “Mr. James.” He called her by her first name and told her that he had a package of $2.5 million dollars to deliver to her. When she replied that she was going to call the police the caller said, “I’m going to swipe your bank card and wipe you out, f*&@% you!”
Missing Computer: A Southwoods Lane woman reported that her MacBook laptop was taken out of her car on or about January 7, 2010.
Quiet Please: Residents from Brookby Road, Mohican Trail and Secor Road all called the police to complain about loud music coming from the direction of the Fenway Golf Club on Saturday night 1/23. Police went to the club where the manager explained that they were hosting a party with outdoor music and agreed to keep the music at an acceptable noise level. At midnight, the club ended the party.
Loud Customer: On Sunday morning1/24 an employee of Lulu’s called police to ask them to help her get a very loud customer to leave the bakery. The customer left without further ado.
Dog Hit: A White Plains man driving north on the Post Road on January 18th was unable to avoid a dog who ran into the road in front of 1183 Post Road. The dog’s owner was at home and ran out to get the dog and took him to the animal hospital. Since the dog was not on a leash the owner was issued a summons for a “Dog at Large.”
Cars Collide: A car driving south on Brite Avenue collided with a car going east on Olmstead Road at 8 am on 1/22. The driver on Olmstead Road failed to stop at the stop sign. John Cotter of Brite Avenue, was taken to White Plains Hospital.
Stuck: Early Monday morning 1/25 an 18-wheel tractor trailer got stuck on the median of Ardsley Road near Depot Place. Greenburgh Police arrived to direct traffic and help to move the trailer.
Identity Thefts:
An unknown man opened a Nordstrom account in the name of a Sheldrake Road resident and charged $1,800 of merchandise in Townsend, Maryland and another $1,800 at Nordstrom’s in McLean, Virginia. In addition, the Barney’s fraud department called the man to let him know that someone had attempted to open a Barney’s account using his personal information.
A similar complaint came in from a Franklin Road resident, also on 1/23. She received a call from Barclay’s bank to verify an application for instant credit that had been completed at an Apple store. Luckily the culprit provided the wrong birth date and the application was turned down. Next a loss prevention supervisor from Bloomingdales in Wayne, N.J. got in touch with her to say that a heavy-set black woman in her mid-twenties was attempting to purchase $3,000 in merchandise using a copy of the Scarsdale residents driver’s license, but no Bloomingdales charge. The imposter was detained at Bloomingdales until the Wayne, NJ police arrived to deal with her.
AT&T notified a Horseguard Road resident that she had an unpaid balance of $708 on an account that was opened in her name in September, 2006 and remained open for 2 and a half weeks. A Philadelphia address was given for the account. The victim had no idea who opened the account and accrued the charges.
Disputes:
An unhappy worker came to a Park Road house on 1/21 to complain that she was owed two days pay from the family. Police went to the home and were able to resolve the dispute.
An unknown caller reported a fight at the high school in the Brewster Road parking lot on the afternoon of 1/22. When police arrived they did find a group of students but all claimed that they had not seen a fight.
County Provides Affordable Housing Plan to HUD
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- Hits: 7177
Westchester County has sent its implementation plan to HUD and the federal monitor in response to the fair and affordable housing lawsuit.
The County received several extensions on filing the plan, which was originally due in October 2009 citing the “enormity” of the task of defining a methodology and process for development of 750 units and extensive community outreach.
The plan that was issued does not indicate where the affordable housing will be built, but outlines a process for decision-making and discusses financing, criteria for site selection, income requirements for residents of the units and advertising and outreach to ensure that the units are marketed to a racially and ethnically diverse population.
How will the County work with local municipalities who all have zoning codes in place? According to the plan, “The materials produced by the County are not intended to operate as a fully-integrated zoning code or to otherwise act as a substitute for those long-standing codes. Rather, what has been produced are a series of zoning provisions which are intended, collectively, to serve as a supplement to existing municipal zoning codes in Westchester County municipalities for the purpose of ensure the provision and promotion and affordable housing development.”
Local governments will be asked to adopt policies promoting fair and affordable housing in exchange for future county funds for Legacy/Open space and Community Development Block Grants (CDBG). Specifically, the plan requires the County to establish a policy where they set aside funds and resources for municipalities that consent to 1) ban housing that does not create affordable units, 2) provide the County with a right of first refusal to retain or purchase land and 3) provide assistance to the implementation of the settlement through land use regulations and other affirmative measures.
Within the plan are the criteria the County will consider in identifying potential sites for affordable housing construction. The plan in its entirety can be viewed here but here are a few of the Country priorities for site selection:
-Properties in default or subject to foreclosure that have been stalled or abandoned
-Private and public properties currently proposed for development that meet the program objectives
-Vacant properties, especially those in town centers in the “Eligible Municipalities”
-Improved properties that appear to be suitable
-Publicly owned sites
-County-owned property
-Sites suitable for Transit Oriented Development
-Accessory apartments – whereby homeowners would receive incentives for creating affordable units in communities that have accessory apartment regulations or are willing to adopt regulations
-Improved properties currently for sale with market prices at or near the “affordability standard.”
Other provisions in the plan provide maximum occupancy for the units, depending on the size as well as the income requirements for residents at both rental and purchased units. The maximum occupancy for a two-bedroom unit is five people, and a three-bedroom unit can be occupied by up to seven residents.
The plan also outlines benchmarks for completion of the housing to guarantee that the County does not wait until the end of the seven-year period to comply. Here are the deadlines for securing financing and building permits for the 750 units from 2011 – 2016:
End of Year Sites with Financing Units with Building Permits
2011 100 50
2012 200 125
2013 300 225
2014 450 350
2015 600 525
2016 750 750
In order to comply with the statistical and analytical work required by HUD, the County determined that they would need to hire a consultant. None of the consultants recommended by HUD could complete the required work by the January 31, 2010 deadline so HUD issued an extension for the work to June 30, 2010. The County has selected W. Frank Newton, Inc. to produce the work required by HUD in the settlement plan for which he will be paid $97,000.
According to the Westchester County website, the next step is for a plan review by the federal monitor in consultation with HUD to determine it’s adequacy.
Review the entire plan here: http://www.westchestergov.com/housingsettlement
Thefts, Fights and Inappropriate Behavior
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- Hits: 6722
Incident at the Chateaux: RJT Tow Service was in the process of putting a boot on an illegally parked car at 11:15 on the night of 1/15 when an angry man emerged from building 4 or 5. The man yelled, “You’re not booting my car; take it off or I’ll run you over.” The man, who was described as a white man, in his 
mid-fifties wearing a trench coat, then got into his 2008 Toyota 4-Runner and attempted to leave the scene. In the process he did about $1,000 worth of damage to the boot that was already partially mounted on the tire. The owner of the 4-Runner was accompanied by another man who got into a Mercedes Benz that was parked in front of the 4-Runner and moved the Mercedes to allow the subject to flee. Though police searched the area, they were unable to find the two cars that fled the scene. However they took statements from witnesses and are continuing to look for the subject who could be charged with criminal mischief for damaging the boot and menacing the RJT Tow Service operator.
Theft at LF: The manager of the LF Store on Boniface Circle called police when a witness told her that she saw a customer stuffing black leather shorts into her jacket. The suspect then left the store with her two companions without paying for the shorts. Police arrived and found the woman crouched next to her white Audi that was parked in front of Weber Art on Boniface Circle. She was emptying the merchandise from her coat and putting it into the front seat of her car. She then walked around the car and put another piece of merchandise next to the tire of a Toyota Suburban that was parked to the left of the Audi. When the three women noticed the police they broke into a run toward Spencer Place. Additional police units were summoned and the women were stopped on Harwood Court at Spencer Place.
The suspect was identified as Georgia Farquharson and she was placed under arrest and taken to the police station. The stolen items were recovered and included two pair of black leather shorts, valued at $312 each and a black leather vest with a price tag of $348.00. The two companions were released and the defendant was arraigned before Judge Galloway who set a court date for 1/20 and let her go.
Risque Business: A woman who worked for two years as a caregiver on Richbell Road, came to police headquarters on January 15th accompanied by a representative from the Westchester Victims Assistance Service. Joy Forbis-Speth, the caregiver, told police that she was the recipient of inappropriate comments from a man who also works at the home and has been employed there for eleven years. She stated that in November, 2009 he said, “With a body like that I bet other women are jealous of you.” He also said “You are too skinny, I like women with more meat on their bones,” and “Why don’t you bring your swimsuit and I will rub oil on you and give you a massage?” He also sent her emails, where he addressed her as “Joy Skinny Butt” and tried to show her pornographic emails. A few weeks later he began exposing himself to her and walked into the hallway naked from the waist down.
Police went to the home, spoke to the man and advised him of the harassment complaint. The man claimed that he accidentally dropped the towel around his waist when he exposed himself, recognized that his behavior was inappropriate and apologized to Ms. Forbis. The complainant decided not to file charges but wants the incidents documented.
Car Accidents: On the afternoon of 1/14, a 79 year-old Greenacres man was backing out of his driveway on Brite Avenue when he claims that his foot got stuck on the accelerator. His 1994 Toyota backed up into two cars. In a panic, the man put the car into drive, and drove over the lawn and bushes of his neighbor’s property, finally stopping when he hit the neighbor’s home at 123 Brite Avenue. Damage was sustained to the two parked cars, the lawn, the garden and the brick façade of the house.
A two car collision took place at the intersection of Boulevard and Nelson Road on 1/14 around 6 pm. The driver of a car travelling down Boulevard hit a car turning onto Boulevard from Nelson Road. Miyava Chapman from Yonkers had to be removed from her car by the Scarsdale Volunteer Ambulance Corps and was taken to the hospital in an ambulance.
Drive to prayer? A NYC cab was reported parked outside of Hitchcock Church on the afternoon of 1/13 and the driver was praying on a mat on the sidewalk!
Stray foot: The Scardale Fire Department got a call from an unknown witness on the afternoon of 1/16 to reported that a foot was "sticking out of the pond" across from Hitchcock Church. When firemen arrived they found a plastic foot sitting about 20 feet into the pond on thin ice.
Missing Daughters: There were two reports of missing daughters this week. A Murray Hill Road woman called police at 11 PM on 1/13 to report that her sixteen year-old daughter had not returned home from school. Though the girl had attended school that day she had left her cell phone and wallet at home. The woman told police that her daughter had run away on two previous occasions but had later been found with her boyfriend in the Bronx. The girl subsequently returned home on her own.
In another incident, a grown daughter had returned to Scarsdale to stay with her family. The 41 year-old woman went into the city on the evening of 1/16 and when she had not returned by 2 am on 1/17, her parents got worried and notified the police. The woman was later located by the MTA police when she took the train back from the city.
Identity Theft: A Chateaux Circle resident was notified by the Woori Bank that fraudulent charges had been made to his credit card last May in Sudan. A Jefferson Road man got a call from AT&T on 1/13 to say that two additional phone lines were added to his AT&T wireless account, one added on 1/7 and the other on 1/11. Since these were not his accounts he was advised to contact the police. And last, a Fenimore Road man got a call from Saks Fifth Avenue on 1/13 to let him know that someone had charged $481 in merchandise at Saks Fifth Avenue on his Amex Card. Since he hadn’t been to Saks, he was also instructed to file a report with the police.
Vandalism: The door handle to the new Christie Place garage was damaged and the door was scratched. It appeared that the vandal used a tool to pry the door handle off of the mounting. The incident occurred sometime between the afternoon of 1/13 and the morning of 1/14.
Car Trouble: Just before midnight on 1/16 Claremont Road residents found a man sitting in the passenger seat of their car, which was parked unlocked in their driveway. The homeowner confronted the man who said, “I’m hungry, I’m hungry” and got out of the car and fled. Police canvassed the area to look for the intruder who was described as a black male, possibly in his early thirties. No damage was done to the car and nothing was stolen.
The next day, a neighbor on Claremont Road found that his car had also been entered on the previous night. His 2009 BMW X5 was parked in the driveway and someone entered it and took his iPhone, phone adaptor and Blackberry charger valued at $320.00. Police suspect the two incidents are related and are investigating.
A Chesterfield Road teen left his 1999 Subaru in the parking lot of the Fox Meadow School at 11 PM on 1/17. When police checked the lot just after midnight on 1/18 they found the car with the back doors open. They noticed that both rear view mirrors had been broken off and taken. Police notified the boy’s father who confirmed that the car was in good condition when his son parked it and he had no knowledge of who might have damaged the car.
Gas Leak: Con Edison found a gas leak on Cushman Road on 1/17 and needed to get into the house at 50 Cushman to shut off the service to the house. The fire department got in through an unlocked window and the homeowner returned home and was advised of the situation.
