Police dog chills on chief’s couch
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.
NAP TIME
On April 2, Hanson police shared a photo on Instagram of the department’s community resource dog, Ziva, stretched out on a couch in Chief Michael Miksch’s office. “Someone made herself comfortable in Chief Miksch’s Office today while Ofc [Derek] Harrington did some firearms training at the station!” the post said.
OVERENTHUSIASTIC STAMP COLLECTOR
On March 28, a 32-year-old Springfield man was arraigned on a federal indictment charging him with 12 counts of theft of government property valued at more than $30,000. What kind of property? With that price tag, you might think it was a vehicle or construction equipment, or a bunch of high-end computers. But no, in this case, the guy allegedly used fraudulent checks to purchase more than $30,000 worth of postage stamps. According to the indictment, he snagged the stamps by making 12 separate purchases over the course of two days in August 2023 at various locations in upstate New York.
CAN’T GET INN
A night at a Cape Cod hotel should be a pleasant experience, but that wasn’t the case for a guest who got locked out of a room on March 24. The guest, who was staying in Sandwich, tried to track down an employee in order to regain entry, to no avail. When the guest called police, they, too, were unable to reach any of the inn’s staff. Dispatch also was unable to reach anyone at the inn, and police reported that the locked-out guest made other arrangements for the evening. “Don’t hotels have night clerks anymore?” police wrote on Facebook. “The whole idea of a hotel is that guests stay there all night, right?”
NOT YOUR AVERAGE FENDER BENDER
On March 29, a woman involved in a minor motor vehicle accident in Sandwich “exchanged more than information with the other driver,” police wrote on Facebook. “After both drivers had parted ways, the woman realized the other vehicle’s plate was attached to hers.” The woman brought the stray license plate into the police station and the owner subsequently came by the station to pick it up, “‘cuz he’s going to need that,” police quipped.
WATER WORLD
At 7:22 p.m. March 24, Cohasset police received a 911 call reporting that someone had left a garden hose running on North Main Street and there was water running down the street. The caller was unsure of the exact address. Police located the hose and tried to notify the homeowner, but were unable to shut the hose off. Firefighters also responded, and reported that there was a good reason for that, because the hose was connected to a sump pump. Turned out the home’s basement was flooded and the homeowner was pumping it out.
MINIBUS VANDALISM
A fund-raising campaign has been started for the mini school bus that was vandalized at the Greenhouse School in Salem on April 16. A home security camera caught four youths — who appeared to be high school age — allegedly breaking into the little school bus, which has been a familiar sight at the small private school on Route 1A. For years the bus was driven by “Mr. Frank,” the husband of the school’s founder Patricia JenningsWelch. School officials said the bus was something of a relic they planned to fix up or put to some other use, such as a greenhouse or plant shop. “We would love to keep it and turn it into an amazing plant emporium, especially because our plant program is growing (pun intended) by leaps and bounds,” school officials said. To contribute to the fundraiser, visit tinyurl.com/Fix-Our-SchoolBus.