Table of Contents
April 18
10:27 p.m. — Officer Christopher Gallo was dispatched to the area of Orne Street for a report of a loud group of juveniles. The caller, a resident, reported that the group had also allegedly taken a "do not enter" sign from the end of her driveway. Gallo and Officer Tyler Bates searched the area thoroughly but were unable to locate either the group or the missing sign.
April 20
1:39 p.m. — Officer Andrew Clark spoke with the owner of an ice cream shop on Atlantic Avenue, who wanted to share concerns about a dispute with the building's owners. The owner said he had an agreement with the property owners permitting him to operate until 11 p.m. through the end of the month, and alleged that one of them had come to the rear parking lot the previous Saturday evening and yelled at patrons to leave, allegedly breaking the agreement and costing him business. The owner asked that police be aware of the situation should the landlord call to complain about customers after 10 p.m. Clark advised him that the matter was civil but said he would document the concerns.
3:55 p.m. — Officer Tyler Bates took a report at the police station from a resident who said he had begun receiving harassing text messages from an acquaintance. The resident said that about a year earlier he had given the acquaintance roughly $1,200 to help with bills and food and had not heard from him since, until that day, when the man allegedly sent a text telling the resident not to come near him or his home and claiming to have video of his recent behavior. The resident said he was unsure what the message referred to. Bates explained the process for obtaining a harassment prevention order, and the resident said he intended to block the number and return to the station if any further messages arrived.
April 21
12:23 p.m. — Officer Jason McDonald met at the police station with a local business owner who reported that someone had allegedly hacked into his company's computer system over the previous week and weekend. The owner believed the initial breach may have originated from his bookkeeper's personal laptop while she was working from home in Beverly, and said he had also been notified of an attempted fraudulent transaction on his Amazon account. The owner told McDonald he had hired a computer service to clean his systems, had changed all of his online passwords and would continue to monitor his bank accounts.
1:51 p.m. — Officer Andrew Clark responded to West Shore Drive for a suspicious incident a resident reported at her home. According to the resident, an unidentified woman had walked up to the front steps, placed a plastic bag of trash there and then photographed the bag before leaving; the woman was captured on the home's camera. The resident's son saw the woman and assumed it was a food delivery, but when he went to retrieve the bag he found it contained miscellaneous trash. Clark searched the bag for any identifying markings but found none, and advised the resident he would log the incident in case it became a pattern. The resident said she had no known disputes with anyone and did not recognize the woman. Later in the shift, Clark was called back to West Shore Drive, where the resident and her husband explained that the husband had ordered a copper shut-off valve and a fastener — worth about $30 — from a home-improvement retailer. He had received an email stating the package was delivered at the same time the unknown woman left the bag of trash, and a confirmation photo showed the very same bag. The retailer's headquarters told him the order had been routed through its Salem store and delivered by a rideshare driver. The matter was forwarded to the Criminal Investigation Division for review.
3:33 p.m. — Officer Adam Mastrangelo was dispatched to the station lobby for a report of fraud, where he met a resident who said she had been scammed out of $13,000. The resident reported that someone claiming to be from a computer-security company had called to say her information had been compromised and that they needed to help her. She said she had granted the callers access to her computer and ultimately wired $13,000 from her brokerage account using her phone. Mastrangelo advised her to have both her computer and phone professionally cleaned, to contact the credit agencies, to alert her banks and to stop answering calls from unknown numbers. The case was forwarded to the Criminal Investigation Division.
April 22
10:48 a.m. — Officer Brandon Boutilier took a phone report from a resident on Evans Road who said he had fallen victim to a cryptocurrency scam. The resident reported that he had received a verification code through a stock-trading app that he had not requested, and that when he called the customer-support number he was told his account was unsafe and that someone else had access to it. He was allegedly transferred to a person posing as a case manager, who directed him to move $5,000 from his trading wallet into cryptocurrency and then to a separate digital wallet. The resident said that when he was pressed to transfer still more money he became suspicious, hung up and realized it was likely a scam, and that he could no longer access the funds. Boutilier advised him to stop responding to the numbers involved and to monitor his accounts, and forwarded the report to the Criminal Investigation Division.
April 25
3:38 p.m. — Officer Dean Peralta took a report at the station from a customer who wanted to alert police to the practices of an ice cream shop on Atlantic Avenue. The customer alleged that the shop's owner was not honoring gift cards — swiping them, telling customers no balance remained and then throwing the cards away. She said that when this allegedly happened to her that day, she retrieved her card from the trash and asked the owner to key in the numbers manually, which she said revealed a remaining balance of $12.24. The customer alleged the owner had done the same to other children and said she simply wanted police to be aware.
April 27
7:59 a.m. — Officer Brandon Boutilier responded to a school on West Shore Drive for a report of vandalism. The school's director of facilities led Boutilier to the library, where one of the windows had a small hole in the center and a large crack running diagonally from top to bottom. The damage appeared consistent with a strike from an Airsoft BB and had not penetrated the inner layer of the glass. Boutilier searched the grounds outside the window for any BBs but found none. The director said he believed the damage had occurred over the weekend and that he would review security-camera footage, and Boutilier provided his department email so any footage could be sent to him.
10:46 a.m. — Officer Brandon Boutilier took a report at the station from a resident on Lafayette Street who said he and his next-door neighbor had been defrauded by a company that advertised air-duct cleaning. The resident reported that in March he had arranged online for quotes to clean his condominium and his neighbor's, exchanging text messages with the company about a technician's visit. He said a technician quoted $1,169 for the two units and requested two separate $350 deposits, after which the company repeatedly rescheduled and never performed any work. The resident said he was never told the deposits were nonrefundable, that his attempts to cancel and recover the $700 had gone unanswered, and that when he looked up the company's listed address it brought him to Salem Hospital. He said he had provided no other personal information. Boutilier said he would document the report and forward it to the Criminal Investigation Division for review.
1:47 p.m. — Officer Brandon Boutilier filed a companion report documenting the same alleged air-duct-cleaning scam on behalf of a second resident on Lafayette Street, the next-door neighbor of the earlier complainant. The neighbor reported that she had paid a $350 deposit for cleaning that was never performed and that she had been unable to obtain a refund. She told Boutilier she had checked with her bank, that nothing further had been taken from her accounts and that she had been monitoring them. Boutilier said he would document her account and forward it to the Criminal Investigation Division for review.
April 28
2:07 p.m. — Officer Adam Mastrangelo was dispatched to the station lobby for a report of check fraud and met the owner of a liquor store on Atlantic Avenue. The owner reported that over the previous several months someone had allegedly intercepted three of his checks, "washed" them and attempted to pass them at several locations, in amounts of roughly $9,800, $2,500 and $1,300. The owner said all of the checks had been stopped and that he was not out any money. Mastrangelo placed copies of the checks in a detective's mailbox and forwarded the case to the Criminal Investigation Division.
April 29
3:56 p.m. — Officer Christian Hennigar was dispatched to the station lobby for a report of threatening posts on social media. A parent reported that people on Facebook had been making comments about the way his teenage son drives, allegedly posting a description of the family's blue Jeep and commenting that someone should pull the teen from the car and beat him. The parent said friends at school had seen the post and that his son began receiving text messages that left him very emotional. He told Hennigar the family would swap vehicles for a few weeks until the posts stopped and asked only that the incident be documented for now. Hennigar advised the family to return to the station if further comments were made.
April 30
7:21 a.m. — Officer Neil Comeau was dispatched to Atlantic Avenue for a motor-vehicle crash involving a tractor-trailer and a building. Comeau found the tractor-trailer stopped in the middle of Hawkes Street with what appeared to be power lines wedged between the cab and the trailer, and bricks from the upper portion of a corner building scattered across the sidewalk and roadway. The driver told Comeau he had been making a delivery to a store across the street and had turned from Atlantic Avenue onto Hawkes Street to straighten out the truck when the low-hanging wires became caught between the cab and trailer, pulling the bricks away from the building. After documenting the scene and checking the driver's information, Comeau stood by as Marblehead Electric Light and the town Highway Department cut the wires free and cleared the debris, after which he reopened the roadway.
7:27 a.m. — Officer Daniel Gagnon was dispatched to Intrepid Circle for what dispatch described as a neighbor dispute. The caller, a resident, told Gagnon that she heard children running in the unit above hers every day and that her work for an airline required her to sleep at irregular hours. She played a recording for the officer, which Gagnon noted sounded typical of communal living. He advised her that the matter was one for the building's management company, with which she said she already had an appointment that day, and suggested she keep records to provide to them.
7:45 a.m. — Officer Douglas Mills took a phone report from a resident on Pleasant Street who said a dispute with a pressure-washing company had turned threatening. The resident reported that he had found one of the company's advertising signs on his property, removed it and called to ask that no further signs be placed there. He said the company's owner later sent him a text message that referenced his job with the school and ended by saying he would "see him soon at the Y." Mills advised the resident to block the number and have no further contact with the company. Mills noted that when dispatch checked the phone number, it came back to a different individual than the named owner.
May 1
11:18 a.m. — Officer Brandon Boutilier responded to Gingerbread Hill Road for a report of a truck banging into walls. A resident and her husband told Boutilier that a disposal truck backing into a driveway to reach a neighboring property had gone over the small stone wall on their side of the driveway; they said there was no damage to the wall but felt the truck was too large for the narrow street. A neighbor said the truck had also rubbed against a tree overhanging the wall, breaking a few branches, though she added she was less concerned about the branches than about the truck returning. Boutilier then spoke with the driver, from a disposal company, who acknowledged going over the wall and brushing the branches, said he had apologized to the neighbors and agreed the space was tight, and said he would ask his employer about using a smaller truck in the future. Boutilier documented the incident to the parties' satisfaction.
1:55 p.m. — Officer Douglas Mills was dispatched to West Shore Drive for a report of a past package theft. A resident told Mills he had ordered window tape from an online retailer and received a confirmation email and photo showing it had been delivered to his front door at 2:35 p.m. the day before. He said that when he arrived home later that afternoon the package, worth about $40, was missing. Mills checked with a neighbor who had a camera, but it had not captured the delivery or the theft, and a search of the area turned up no other cameras.
May 2
8:08 a.m. — Officer Douglas Mills was dispatched to West Shore Drive for a package theft that had just occurred. A passing motorist reported that she had seen a man in a black hooded sweatshirt, riding an e-scooter or e-bike, pull to the side of the road, run to the front steps of a home, take a package and ride off inbound on West Shore Drive. Mills, Officer Charles Sweeney and Officer Brandon Boutilier searched the surrounding area but were unable to locate the man. A check for cameras found none at the targeted home, though neighboring properties had cameras that might have captured the suspect; one neighbor's footage showed no activity, and another did not answer. Mills then spoke with the resident, who said she had ordered clothing online worth about $77 and had received an email that morning confirming delivery the previous evening. Mills advised her to report the theft to the retailer and the carrier and that she could request a copy of his report.
3:05 p.m. — Officer Brandon Boutilier spoke at the station with a resident who was having computer trouble and was worried she had been charged improperly. The resident said she had called a number she believed belonged to her internet provider to pay a $158 bill and had given no personal information, but that she appeared to have been charged twice. She said her bank told her it looked like a double charge, though nothing showed in her mobile app. Boutilier advised her to take her computer to a repair shop, to follow up with her bank and to monitor her accounts to ensure she was not out any money.
3:31 p.m. — Officer Brandon Boutilier spoke with a tenant who wanted to report a dispute with her landlord at her home on Edgemere Road. The tenant said the landlord had come to meet a fence company and had entered her home to reach an upstairs deck to inspect a downspout. She said that when she told him he could not do so without 24 hours' notice, he grew angry and said he wanted to evict her. The tenant said she had lived there six years and considered herself an excellent tenant, and wished only to have the incident documented.
May 3
3:06 p.m. — Officer Christian Hennigar responded to Mugford Street for a report of fraud. A resident reported that several days earlier about $700 had been stolen from her bank account and that the passwords for both her banking app and her email had been changed. She said she had already filed a claim with the bank and that the stolen funds had been returned. Hennigar advised her to continue monitoring her statements and to freeze her credit with the three major credit bureaus.
May 4
8:15 a.m. — Officer Brandon Boutilier took a phone report from a parent whose 9-year-old son had been involved in a bicycle crash that morning on West Shore Drive. The parent said the boy was riding to school when, near a garden center, he crossed the street and the back tire of his bike was allegedly clipped by a car heading outbound. He said his son was not injured but was shaken, and had described the vehicle as a grayish-blue Toyota SUV whose driver did not stop. With the parent's permission, Boutilier spoke with the boy at his school, with the school nurse present. The boy said he was uninjured but still shaken, that he had pulled onto the sidewalk and called his father immediately, that he had not been knocked off the bike and could not make out a license plate, and that the driver never stopped to check on him. The parent asked that the incident be documented.
4:24 p.m. — Officer Jason McDonald met at the station with a resident who reported receiving an unfriendly, typed and unsigned letter in the mail. The resident said the letter referenced her past volunteer work in the community and a book she had written. McDonald advised her to report any further activity by which she felt harassed. The resident said she did not know who had written the letter, which carried no return address, and the letter was scanned into the report.
5:49 p.m. — Lt. Jason Conrad and Officer Christopher Gallo responded to Washington Street for a report of a suspicious person claiming to be soliciting for Verizon. Conrad located two men on the porch of a home speaking with a resident; one wore a Verizon badge and reflective vest, while the second had no visible identification. Conrad asked the men to stop their sales pitch and learned that neither was registered as a solicitor in town, as required by bylaw. The man with the badge led Conrad to a vehicle parked on Washington Street to retrieve his identification; a registry check showed the vehicle, registered to the man's girlfriend, allegedly had no active insurance. The man acknowledged to his companion, in front of Conrad, that he was aware the vehicle was uninsured but believed the matter would be "worked out." Conrad called a tow company, had the man remove his belongings and arrange another ride, and seized the vehicle's license plates before it was towed. The vehicle's owner was issued a criminal complaint citation, which Conrad provided to the man as her agent after he reached her by phone. Conrad advised both men about the town's soliciting bylaws and directed them to the licensing officer to apply for a permit before working in town again.
May 5
11:06 a.m. — Sgt. Timothy Morley spoke at the station with a resident who reported that a wallet she had left behind during a trip had been thrown away by staff. The resident said she had accidentally left her wallet — containing credit cards, a driver's license and small personal items — at a resort in Fitchburg, and that an employee had called to say they had it and would hold it for up to 90 days. She said that before the 90 days elapsed, the resort notified her it had thrown away the items and donated the wallet itself. Concerned that her personal information had been discarded, the resident was advised by Morley to work with her financial institutions and any legal representation to protect herself from possible fraud, and that a report would remain on file.
2:45 p.m. — Officer Christian Hennigar responded to the station lobby to speak with a resident about identity fraud. The resident said she had received two emails from a bank congratulating her on opening two new accounts, which she had not authorized. She said she had confirmed with the bank that the accounts were fraudulent and had them closed, and that the bank advised her to report the matter to a federal identity-theft site and to freeze her credit. The resident said she had noticed no other problems with her accounts and wanted the incident documented. Hennigar advised her a report would be available if needed.
May 6
3:26 p.m. — Officer Charles Sweeney was dispatched to the lobby to speak with a resident about identity theft. The resident said she had received an email from a bank indicating that a checking account had been opened in her name. She said that when she called the bank, she confirmed that someone had used her Social Security number to open the account, that she had it closed and flagged as fraud, and that no transactions had been made. Sweeney advised her to monitor her information and to report if any other accounts were opened in her name.
May 8
8:37 p.m. — Officer Nicholas Michaud, assisted by Officer James Donovan, was driving outbound on Ocean Avenue along the Causeway when he saw the vehicle in front of him — a black Honda Pilot — traveling without headlights or taillights, about half an hour after sunset. Michaud activated his emergency lights and stopped the vehicle and, after checking its status, informed the driver it would have to be towed. The driver understood, and a tow company removed the vehicle to its yard. An inventory was conducted at the scene and the form was given to the officer in charge, Lt. Michael Everett.
May 9
10:48 a.m. — Officer Andrew Clark spoke with a resident on Cross Street about repeated vandalism to his vehicle and property. The resident said that over the past couple of months someone had thrown a half-eaten apple core at his sedan's windshield at least three times and had left miscellaneous trash in his parking area, as if placing it there intentionally. Asked whether he suspected anyone, the resident said he believed it was a neighbor with whom he had had a falling-out over the winter regarding snow removal, though he acknowledged he could not prove it. Clark advised him to ask his property manager about installing a camera to deter the activity, and the resident agreed. The matter was documented in case it continued.
1:50 p.m. — Officer Adam Mastrangelo was dispatched to State Street for a neighbor dispute. A resident told Mastrangelo that a short time earlier his neighbor had become upset and allegedly damaged a fence the two share, where the neighbor's trash barrels sit. The resident said the neighbor had been throwing out a large section of cardboard and, in frustration, pushed it behind the barrels and into the fence, causing damage. He said he did not wish to press charges and simply wanted the neighbor to be less volatile. Mastrangelo observed fresh damage to the fence. He then spoke with the neighbor, who said he was not sure whether he had caused the damage and that he had left the area after a family member of the resident came out and began yelling at him. Mastrangelo advised the neighbor to be more careful in the future, which he agreed to do; the neighbor offered to apologize and shake hands, but the resident declined.
8:24 p.m. — Officer Robert Picariello conducted selective speed enforcement in the area of Beach Street at Orchard Street, where traffic was light on a dark, rainy evening. Picariello reported observing no vehicles traveling faster than was reasonable but did conduct one motor-vehicle stop of a car that had no lights on and had rolled through the stop sign from Orchard Street onto Beach Street.
