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MANVILLE: Day’s police blotter relives storm phone call by call

By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
   Hurricane Sandy unfolds virtually minute by minute in the police blotter of Monday, Oct. 29.
   High winds broke tree branches or uprooted trees throughout the area. There were multiple calls for trees or branches down between 3:45 and 10:25 p.m. Police and fire were dispatched as necessary.
   Among those calls:
   A tree was reported having fallen onto a house on Huff Avenue at 3:45 p.m. Police said it didn’t appear to damage the house structurally.
   A tree reported leaning against house on North 10th Avenue shortly after 10 p.m. Manville Office of Emergency Management reported a tree on fire leaning against a power line at 7:41 p.m. on South 17th Avenue. Police and fire responded.
   A caller said a large tree was down on a house on Dominic Street at 8:36 p.m. A tree on a house was reported at 10:25 p.m. on North 8th Avenue.
   A caller said an individual holding a shed in the middle of South 13th Avenue at 6:25 p.m. The man removed the debris from the road.
   A North 9th Avenue man reported a carport was in the back of his residence at 2:48 p.m. Oct. 29. Police found a portable tent and didn’t know where it came from.
   A branch came down on a police car at 8:09 p.m. on North Main Street.
   Dispatchers handled more than 20 calls about down or low-hanging utility wires, starting at about 3:30 p.m. and going until about 11 p.m. Some wires were arcing, and transformers came down.
   Utility poles fell, too.
   Sgt. William Yankoski reported an unstable telephone pole on Duke’s Parkway at 5:07 p.m. The DPW barricaded the area. A telephone pole was reported halfway down on Boesel Avenue at 11:18 p.m. PSE&G was notified. A caller reported a pole leaning with low-hanging wires on North 11th Avenue at 10:49 p.m.
   A caller said two separate telephone poles with a transformer were down on Brooks Boulevard at about 7 p.m. Police and fire responded and PSE&G was notified.
   Transformers blew on Jackson Avenue at 5:09 p.m. and on Stonewall Avenue at 6:03.
   A caller reported a live wire over a traffic light on South Main Street at 10:20 p.m. The fire department was called and the area barricaded.
   Responding to abandoned 9-1-1 call, patrol found three transformers and a pole down on North 4th Avenue. Fire fighters were dispatched.
   A couple of times during the storm, callers asked for transportation or evacuation because of broken windows. They were told to stay away from windows.
   A caller said three uncovered drums filled with cooking oil were left in the rear of a store on South Main Street at about 6 p.m. The health department was made aware of the complaint.
   Particularly after the worst of the storm subsided, police were asked — a couple in out-of-town calls — to make well-being checks on people.
   Emergency services also had to respond to activations of carbon monoxide alarms.
   After the storm subsided, there were varied calls for a variety of reasons.
   A fire alarm in an apartment on South Main Street was set off by candles at 9:38 p.m. Oct. 30.
   People at the shelter at the VFW reported an issue at 1:17 p.m. Oct. 30. Cory Montgomery, 25, of Franklin was charged with obstruction, and Shana Carreker, 32, of Bridgewater with obstruction and disorderly conduct. In lieu of bail of $1,000 they were taken to Somerset County Jail.
   At 5:33 a.m. Oct. 31 a Lincoln Avenue man reported the theft of a generator from his front porch sometime in the previous five hours. It was valued at $400. In another call, a $1,200 generator was reported stolen at 3:48 p.m. on South 12th Avenue.
   Police said customers were using gas pumps at Lukoil on North Main Street at 1:17 p.m. Oct. 31 without any employees on site. The owner came to secure the pumps.
   A caller at 5:11 p.m. Nov. 1 said an SUV and a pickup truck were working together to steal generators. He had seen an incident yesterday on Gress Street. Police spoke to the man and told him to call if he saw the vehicles again.
   A caller said an unknown man shined a flashlight in his living room at 8:42 p.m. Nov. 1 and took off on foot. Patrols checked but saw no one.
   A Flagtown man reported minutes after midnight into Nov. 2 that 20 gallons of diesel fuel were siphoned from his Dodge truck on South 20th Avenue.
   At 9:09 a.m. Nov. 2 a North Main Street man reported damage, estimated at $1,000, to the fence on his property.

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   County communications said the crowd waiting for gas on North Main Street was becoming hectic. Police calmed the situation and said they’d check periodically.

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   A man said cars are driving aggressively on North 2nd Avenue to get in fuel line at Lukoil at 7:02 p.m. Nov. 2.

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   At 6:34 p.m. Nov. 3 a South 20th Avenue man reported four filled five-gallon gas cans were taken between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. Estimated value was $200.

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   A South 19th Avenue man reported a suspicious white van driving slowly through the neighborhood at about 1 p.m. Nov. 3. Patrols spoke to several residents who said it was a Princeton Packet newspaper truck delivering free newspapers.

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   A woman called headquarters to say she had run over a downed telephone pole where a barricade was down on Brooks Boulevard at North 4th Avenue at 9:22 a.m. Nov. 4. Police gave her a state reporting form.

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   At 11:54 a.m. Nov. 4 a woman asked for a well being check on her 80-year-old husband who left four hours earlier to get gas at the Sunoco station. She gave police a license number and they found the man in no harm.
   In non-storm items reported during the week:

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   Multiple callers reported hearing windows in the rear of Foxtail’s Lounge on South Street being broken at 2:37 a.m. Oct. 29. While patrols were en route, an alarm company activated interior motion alarms. Bridgewater police were asked to back up. Nothing was found on a building check and police determined no proceeds were taken.
   A half-hour later, an activated burglar alarm was received at T and A Jewelry on South Main Street. Hillsborough police backed up. Police checked the building with the key holder on scene and proceeds of less than $1,000 were found to be taken.

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   An anonymous caller reported having a deceased squirrel on her sidewalk on South 3rd Avenue at about 1 p.m. Nov 3.

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   A caller at11:12 p.m. Oct. 31 said someone may have damaged his back window while trying to enter his apartment. Police did find a small cut to a window screen.

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   A Stroudsburg, Pa., woman said she was bitten on her right thigh and her dog suffered puncture wounds when attacked by another dog on Kennedy Boulevard at 7:10 p.m. Nov. 3. Patrol found the animal, a brown Terrier mix, at a house on the street.

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   A North Orchard Street woman reported a man tampering with the fence on her residence at 3:44 p.m. Nov. 2. Drew Lapotasky, 39, of Manville was charged with disorderly conduct, criminal trespass and violating the borough open container law. He was taken to Somerset County Jail in lieu of $1,000 bail.