When tinted windows have the opposite effect
Every day, police officers respond to reports of all sorts of events and nonevents, most of which never make the news. Here is a sampling of lesser-known — but no less noteworthy — incidents from police log books (a.k.a. blotters) in our communities.
UNWANTED ATTENTION
Tinted windows in vehicles provide a layer of privacy that clear ones simply cannot. But be careful, because the laws regulating tint vary from state to state. Here in Massachusetts, your windows must allow at least 35 percent of light through. If they don’t, you can end up like one guy who found himself in all sorts of trouble after his tinted windows caught the attention of a State Police sergeant. If the driver had been seeking privacy, he got just the opposite, and “his bad day got worse when we found a gun and drugs in the car,” State Police wrote. It all started at approximately 10:15 p.m. Feb. 9, when State Police Sergeant Edward Troy was patrolling Route 110 in Methuen and he noticed an Infinity sedan with tinted windows that appeared to be darker than the law allows. Troy followed the car onto Interstate 495, where he reported it accelerated to 80 in a 55 miles per hour zone. Troy then activated his cruiser’s blue lights and pulled the car over. According to the police account, Troy approached and saw the driver, a 19-year-old man from Lawrence, apparently trying to kick something under his seat. Troy used his flashlight and spotted the grip of a pistol with an extended magazine coming out from the bottom. Police say it was a 9mm Glock 19, which the driver was not licensed to have, and he was placed under arrest. In addition to the gun, troopers also found THC and marijuana products and electronic scales in the car. The driver was charged with speeding, various firearm and drug offenses, and the illegal level of window tint.
PEPPERBALL GUN THREAT
Police were called to a home in West Yarmouth on the morning of Feb. 7 after two contractors who were working there got into a heated argument that ended with a gun being pulled out. Upon closer examination, police determined it was a non-lethal self-defense weapon known as a PepperBall gun, “designed to shoot paintball style projectiles filled with hot pepper oil,” police wrote on Facebook. The dueling contractors had been hired to do separate jobs at the home and the quarrel ensued “when one had an issue about the quality of the other’s work,” police wrote. The squabble escalated to the point that one of the contractors, a 47year-old Mashpee man, allegedly pulled out the PepperBall gun from his waistband and pointed it at the other contractor. Police stopped the alleged gunslinger as he was leaving the home and located the gun inside the the truck he was driving. The contractor was subsequently arrested and charged with threatening to commit a crime and assault with a dangerous weapon, police said.
LITTLE WANDERER SAVED
At around 12:44 p.m. Jan. 13, Webster police officers were dispatched after the South Worcester County Communication Center in town received a call from a babysitter reporting that a toddler she was watching had left the home through an open window and wandered off. The child was described as having autism and wearing only a diaper. Officers Jon Brooks, Robert Rockwood, and Patrick Trainor rushed to the French River, which is located close to the home. Trainor found the child on the riverbank in the nick of time, partially in the water. Trainor plucked the child out of the river and alerted his fellow officers. Brooks called for an ambulance, and the child was taken to the hospital to be evaluated as a precaution. “This story could have had a much worse outcome,” police wrote on Facebook.
BLAME MY SPORTS CAR
At 9:33 p.m. Dec. 20, a Sandwich police officer who was parked on Route 6A couldn’t help but notice a vehicle with “a loudly revving engine” speeding past. The officer followed the vehicle and caught up with it at a red light at the intersection of Route 6A and Main Street. When the light turned green, police said, the vehicle rapidly accelerated to a speed greater than the posted speed limit, and you can guess what happened next. When the officer asked the driver if she knew why she’d been pulled over, she stated, “It must be the sports car I’m driving.” The 34-year-old East Sandwich woman was arrested and charged with speeding, operating under the influence of liquor, and negligent operation of a motor vehicle.