Snakes And Boats And Other Things

The still of a muggy night in North Haven was punctured shortly before midnight on Saturday, July 20, when a boat smashed into a dock at 370 Ferry Road. Southampton Town police and bay constables along with Sag Harbor emergency personnel responded. Police reported a boat piloted by Gary Lucas had smashed into the dock and flipped over, and that five people were on board, some injured seriously.

Lucas was taken by medevac to Stony Brook Hospital for injuries to his face and leg. Two other passengers were taken to Stony Brook Southampton Hospital and treated for their injuries.

Police said Lucas was intoxicated while operating his 2018 39-foot boat. He was arrested and released at Stony Brook Hospital on an appearance ticket. Lucas will return to Southampton Town Justice Court at a future date to be arraigned. Lucas has been charged with boating while intoxicated, a misdemeanor, under the New York State Navigation Law. Police said additional charges may be filed.

A day earlier town police said they caught a burglar in North Sea red-handed.

A little after 9 PM on July 19 police received a call for an act of vandalism in progress at a residence in the North Sea Beach Colony. Responding officers arrived and found a residence with damage to nearly every exterior window as well as significant damage inside the unoccupied dwelling. As officers were conducting their own preliminary investigation they said they located a man they identified as the perpetrator in a neighboring house.

A response team that included the Southampton Village Police Department’s canine officer checked the adjacent residence and interrupted a burglary that was occurring in progress.

They said the suspect, Edin Vargas, 19 of Riverhead, initially physically resisted arrest but was eventually taken into custody.

Vargas was charged with two counts burglary in the second degree, both C felonies, one count of criminal mischief in the second degree, a D felony, and resisting arrest, a misdemeanor. He was processed and held for arraignment.

You didn’t have to be an ophidiophobe to be more than a little worried about a slithery snake on the loose in Hampton Bays — it was nine feet long.

Southampton Town police released a public advisory on Tuesday, July 16, notifying residents of a nine-foot yellow-and brown anaconda that had escaped from its owner in Hampton Bays. As it turns out a professional private snake breeder who operates out of his Bay Avenue West residence was returning home from a show, and, when transporting a number of snakes from his vehicle to his house, realized that the anaconda had escaped, according to Police Chief Steven Skrynecki.

Police issued warned residents to be on the lookout and to tread lightly. The snake was located alive, with the help of the Suffolk County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, within a few hours, police said. He was in the vehicle, after all.

The man, whom police have declined to identify, immediately contacted the police, who alerted the Suffolk County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

rmurphy@indyeastend.com