Friday, Sept. 5
Vehicle stops, verbal warnings: 4
9 a.m. Larceny, forgery or fraud was reported on Atlantic Avenue.
10:32 a.m. An officer investigated the report of a vehicle crash on Pleasant Street.
8:37 p.m. An officer assisted a citizen on Overlook Road.
Saturday, Sept. 6
Vehicle stops, verbal warnings: 2
10:09 a.m. An officer spoke in the police station lobby with a man whose wife had been in contact with a person claiming to be selling a stroller for $200 on Facebook. The man said that the person requested they send $75 through the Zelle payment app for a down payment before giving them an address on Jersey Street to pick up the stroller. The man had then driven from Lexington to Marblehead
to retrieve the stroller, but when the man arrived on Jersey Street, the homeowner advised the man that they were not selling anything and had probably been scammed. The man shared the phone number to which the Zelle payment had been made and a screenshot of the Facebook listing.
12:41 p.m. An officer went to Fuller Lane to speak to a woman who had been the victim of credit card fraud. The woman stated that, two days earlier, she received a text message on her phone informing her that she was being hacked. Over the course of three hours, the woman was convinced to provide access to her phone, her Apple account, her Venmo account and her credit card. Since that time, she had cancelled the credit card and disputed charges that had been made on it. The officer asked to see the original text message and was told it had been deleted. The officer managed to recover the text, but as he did so, it was again deleted before his eyes. The officer turned off the phone and advised the family not to turn it back on and instead bring the phone to the Apple store. The officer further advised them to shut off any Apple products linked to her Apple account. The officer also advised the family to file a report with the FTC via identitytheft.gov and not answer any more unsolicited texts. He further advised the woman to lock her credit through the major credit bureaus.
12:45 p.m. An officer went to Endicott Avenue to take a report related to the theft of a purse from an unlocked vehicle. The homeowner described the purse as being a bright orange LuLu Lemon fanny pack, which contained her driver’s license, a debit card, a credit
card, a health care card and a work fob. The resident said the theft could have taken place anytime between 5 p.m. the night before and 8 a.m. The woman had already cancelled both the debit card and credit card. The officer checked the area for cameras but could not locate any.
Sunday, Sept. 7
11:38 a.m. An officer met a driving instructor at the station who explained that she had been in the middle of a lesson with a student when two SUVs — one an Audi, the other a Toyota — began to follow her vehicle while driving in an aggressive manner. The instructor stated that the two vehicles would continuously honk their horns and pull up close to her bumper at red lights and rev their engines as if to scare or intimidate her student driver. The instructor continued that, as she told her driver to parallel park on the dead end portion of Devereux Street, the two vehicles pulled alongside her car. As the instructor was telling the driver to perform a three-point turn, the Toyota
SUV pulled in behind their car as the Audi pulled into a driveway. The instructor told the student driver to put the vehicle in park as she exited to confront the drivers of the other two vehicles whom she did not know. As the instructor approached the driver’s side window to confront the driver of the Audi SUV, the vehicle sped away down Devereux Street towards Smith Street. The Toyota then sped off down Pierce Street towards Atlantic Avenue. However, the instructor was able to write down both vehicles’ registration numbers, which the officer used to identify the drivers. The officer then went to speak with both drivers and their parents at their respective homes. The officer admonished them about the seriousness and potential consequences of their actions and gave them both verbal warnings. The officer indicated that if he needed to speak to them again for similar actions, they might not be so lucky. Upon returning to the station, the officer was met by the driver’s ed instructor, who updated the officer that her student driver had “come clean” and admitted that the drivers of the other vehicles were his friends.
4:51 p.m. An officer investigated a report of a tree down on wires on Atlantic Avenue and Gerald Road.
Monday, Sept. 8
Vehicle stops, citations: 1
10:29 a.m. An officer went to Rowland Street to speak to a resident whose landlord had shown up unannounced and begun to cut down all her flowers because he wanted to sell the property. When the officer asked the woman if she had tried talking to the landlord about finding common terms about the yard, the woman stated that she had not because the landlord was acting aggressively, and she was
frightened by him. She then stated that she had been paying rent at home for the past 16 years and was confused about why the landlord was suddenly kicking her and her family out now, without any warning. Moments later, the officer made his way over to speak with the landlord who was still cutting down bushes and flowers. The landlord began to explain that he had been in contact over the past two weeks with the woman’s husband, and that the couple had been advised that he would be coming to the house and cleaning up the yard because the home would be going up for sale as soon as the next day. The officer then asked the landlord why he was being aggressive towards the woman, which the landlord denied, adding that he would be willing to talk to the woman about the flowers since that was the main reason she was upset. As the tenant and landlord began talking, it was clear that neither could answer questions about their lease agreement. Another officer who had responded asked the woman if she would feel safer if the landlord packed up and left for the day, and she replied yes. The landlord asked for permission to clean up the bushes and flowers that he had already cut down and said he would leave immediately thereafter. The officer then advised both parties that this was a civil issue and that if they could not reach an agreement, they would have to go to civil court. The tenant was then advised to obtain a copy of the lease agreement so she could better understand her rights and to consult a lawyer if issues continued.
8:13 p.m. An officer went to Marblehead High School to speak to a student and his father. The student said that he believed that his helmet, which had been on the top of the locker with a lock on the mask for deterrent reasons, had been stolen from the locker room. The student said that he had last seen the helmet around 3:30 p.m. Friday after football practice. Today, he noticed that the helmet was missing before practice and reported the incident to his coach. The student believed that the helmet had been taken during the junior varsity football game held at MHS on Saturday morning. He had subsequently seen what he believed to be the helmet on sale on Facebook Marketplace for $225, as the photo showed the same scratch marks on the side and mouthguard as his helmet had.
Tuesday, Sept. 9
Vehicle stops, verbal warnings: 1
7:42 a.m. An officer investigated the report of a vehicle crash on Eisenhower Road.
10:58 a.m. Officers investigated the report of a vehicle crash on Leggs Hill Road.
5:11 p.m. An officer was dispatched to Pleasant Street to investigate a report of destruction of property. The owner of the property showed the officer a concrete block wall that had sustained significant damage from an unknown cause. The tenant in the building had last seen the wall intact at 9 p.m. on the previous Saturday night. The property owner planned to see if a tenant in the building next door had cameras that might have captured the incident.
Wednesday, Sept. 10
Vehicle stops, citations: 2
Vehicle stops, verbal warnings: 5
2:43 p.m. An officer spoke with a resident of Angenica Terrace who had been targeted with an email scam. The woman explained that she had received an email from what appeared to be her sister-in-law. When she opened the email, her computer began flashing warning signals for her to call Microsoft for assistance. The woman called the phone number on her screen and spoke to a man with a Middle Eastern accent, who requested access into the woman’s Microsoft account and computer. The woman complied, and the man gained access to her computer. The man uninstalled an anti-virus application on her computer in what he said was an attempt to fix the problem. The woman was then told she would be refunded $150, which would be transferred into her checking account at a local bank. When the woman looked at her checking account online, the $150 had not gotten deposited. The man asked the woman to transfer $25 from her savings account. The woman followed the instruction and transferred the $25. The woman then opened up her savings account online and discovered $25,000 had been deposited. The man then told the resident to send him $24,750 by wire transfer from the bank so he “wouldn’t get in trouble.” She was going to be able to “keep” the $150 for the refund, plus another $100 “because she was a nice lady.” On her way to the bank, the woman started to realize she was being scammed. When the bank looked up her savings account, they discovered the $25,000 had come from another of her own accounts, not from an outside source. The woman decided to close all of her accounts at the local bank and also to bring her computer to Best Buy to get it wiped clean. The officer also advised her to keep an eye on her other accounts and consider contacting the major credit bureaus.
