Results tagged “longisland”

A Long Island woman is suspected of torturing and killing as many as 20 cats and dogs — some of them belonging to her neighbors — before burying them behind her home. Animal control investigators unearthed the "gruesome pet cemetery" on Saturday behind 43-year-old Sharon McDonough's Suffolk County house after discovering five malnourished dogs kept in cramped cages inside the residence. Neighbors whose pets have gone missing showed up at McDonough's home hoping to identify their animals. "A couple of people have lost pets," neighbor Angelo Zotto, 70, told the Daily News. "They were up here today with pictures of their pets showing them to the SPCA, wondering if theirs had been found in the backyard."

A Long Island student who dressed like Aunt Jemima for Halloween was sent home from school when he refused to wipe off his blackface make-up. Before being kicked out, Commack High School senior Dean Jeziorkowski — who has dressed in drag for every Halloween since third grade, going as Barbie, a nun, Wilma Flintstone, and Pocahontas in past years — donned a wig, a bandana, and blackface and "darted in and out of classrooms toting a syrup bottle, asking, 'You want some pancakes?'"

Hooters has added insult to injury. If it isn’t painful enough to wear those tight, little, crotch-riding orange shorts, waitresses at the restaurant chain also have to dip into their paychecks to pay for the uniforms - which is illegal.

Newsday reports, "A 52-year-old Lindenhurst resident annoyed his neighbors by hanging a Nazi swastika flag from the chimney of his house - until his mother made him take it down." Greggs had initially refused, but the media attention prompted Richard Greggs' 75-year-old mother to ask him to remove it. She noted he had done nothing illegal, "He's just into everything with World War II. He has no affiliation with [the Nazi Party]."

This video is the greatest demonstration of someone "flipping it" on an adversary that we've seen in some time. Long Island convenience store and gas-station clerk Mustapha Yakupoglu was closing up at midnight Wednesday night when two masked men burst in and pointed a shotgun at his neck, demanding money. But Yakupoglu, who's been robbed twice before, wasn't having it. Check out this deft maneuver, caught by a surveillance camera:

Passengers and LIRR employees are painting a much different picture of Sunday night's arrest of an off-duty NYPD officer who pointed his gun at rowdy Rangers fans. You'll recall that Officer David Hendrick, a 16-year veteran, gave a television interview Monday night insisting that he pulled his weapon in self-defense after the hockey fans reacted violently to his attempts to shush them. But court papers obtained by Newsday tell a different story.

From Newsday: "With her 5-year-old and 4-month-old daughters nearby, an East Patchogue mother scuffled Saturday with a Suffolk police officer trying to seize crack pipes and hypodermic needles in her kitchen, Suffolk police said in announcing the woman's arrest on numerous criminal charges." Apparently she "jumped on his back and tried to deter him from taking possession."

A Suffolk County man was awaken from his sleep yesterday morning when an SUV came crashing through his house—flying airborne into the second floor! 58-year-old John Sarli was sleeping on a couch in his den at the back of his East Moriches home around 12:25 when the Jeep Grand Cherokee driven by 20-year-old Adam Clark came flying into his foyer and landed headlights-up. Clark had run a stop sign and then hit a berm that sent him into the air for about 85 feet according to Sarli.

A Long Island math teacher, who was arrested in July for having sex with a 15-year-old girl in an elementary school parking lot, is being charged with yet another sex crime. Daniel Rothbard, 28, was out on bail for the first alleged statutory rape when he was arrested again yesterday. Police say that two weeks before the parking lot incident, Rothbard allegedly lured a 13-year-old girl and her 14-year-old friend to his house, where he resided with his pregnant wife. Prosecutors tell Newsday the 14-year-old walked in on him having sex with the younger girl. None of the victims were his students; Rothbard met them on MySpace posing as a 17-year-old with the screen name "DJ" or "D to the J." According to CBS2, the house is now empty and for sale, and Rothbard's lawyer says his client is on suicide watch and pleading not guilty. But Nassau County Police Lt. John Allen expects to find more victims, and the Valley Stream school district has barred Rothbard from school property and prohibited him from having any contact with children or their parents. He's currently behind bars in lieu of $600,000 bail, an amount his lawyer called excessive.

A nun who spent Tuesday afternoon knocking back too much "Jesus juice" was arrested for drunk driving after plowing into a tree on Long Island. Sister Lauren Hanley, 68, is the "spiritual development director" at Wantagh's St. Frances de Chantal Church, which is where she started drinking around 3 p.m. that day. Some three hours later, she was careening through residential streets in the church's 2006 Toyota Corolla, with a blood-alcohol level of 0.18, more than twice the legal limit of 0.08.

A Long Island guy is in major trouble after a perfectly innocent evening spent hanging with his 5-year-old son in a parking lot went terribly wrong, all thanks to some nosy cops. Christopher Grossman, 37, was spotted Tuesday night just chilling with the little man around 11:30 in a parking lot in Seaford, standing next to a car with the music "blasting." A Nassau County police officer decided to see what was up, and noticed that the car's interior was a disgusting mess, overflowing with trash, clothing, golf clubs, and bottles of anti-freeze and laundry detergent surrounding the child's car seat.

Police are investigating whether a robbery in the town of Patchogue over the weekend was another instance of a hate crime in the town where an Ecuadorian immigrant was allegedly murdered by a group of teenagers last November. The Hispanic man was walking on a street in the Long Island town just before midnight on Friday night when he was approached by three young white men. As they knocked him to the ground while stealing cash and other items, police say that "disparaging remarks were made about the victim's ancestry." Patchogue Mayor Paul Pontieri told reporters, "It's distressing that it happened at all. Who knows why and who knows the circumstances? I don't know yet." After a group of teens were charged in the beating death of Ecuadorian immigrant Marcelo Lucero (pictured), the Justice Department launched an investigation into accusations that Hispanic immigrants were being terrorized in the town for months. Some said that the victims' pleas had originally fallen on deaf ears with Suffolk County police.

According to Newsday, "a robbery of cash and marijuana in Oceanside Friday developed into a melee involving four, police said, when the initial victim apparently tried to strike back by stealing an iPod." Seriously! Here's how it unraveled: Christopher Cagno, 20, allegedly demanded $160 cash and pot from Dylan Peitz, 18, on a street. Cagno managed to take the items and was fleeing in friend Christopher Haig's car—but the car was moving so slowly that "Peitz jumped partially through a window, grabbed Haig's iPod and tried to run." Naturally, Cagno and Haig chased Peitz and a fight broke out. Enter Peitz's girlfriend, Alyssa Reilly, 19, who introduced a knife and slashed at Cagno and Haig. All were arrested and charged with assault—Reilly faces additional charges of possession of a deadly weapon (the knife), Cagno has additional charges of robbery (the cash and pot) and drug possession (the pot) and Peitz has additional charges of petty larceny (the iPod theft) and possession of a deadly weapon (maybe the knife?). The four will be arraigned today in Hempstead.

A 15-year-old died from massive head injuries sustained when he was struck by an allegedly intoxicated woman in Hampton Bays on Wednesday night. According to Newsday, Joseph Marino (pictured) "was standing with his bicycle at Ponquogue Avenue and Argonne Road East at about 8:40 p.m..., talking to two friends, when Caroline Goss, 34, drove her 2001 Jeep Cherokee into him." Marino had been in a coma, Suffolk County police say that Goss, who had a previous DWI in 2003, was intoxicated and had a 6-year-old son in the car—she was charged with DWI, endangering the welfare of a child and "having an open container of alcohol in the car." A friend said that Goss is a single mom of two who works the midnight shift at a Port Jefferson Hospital and as a waitress on the weekends. Just yesterday, Governor Paterson suggested tougher penalties for drivers who drive drunk with kids in the car and for drunk drivers who kill children under 17.

A doctor who practiced in The Bronx was the only one of four victims to survive her estranged husband's shooting rampage yesterday at their former home on Long Island. 40-year-old family practitioner Haleh Mohseni is in stable condition and expected to live after her husband, 49-year-old Mohamed Shojaeifardshowed, showed up at the house his wife was moving out of and fatally shot Mohseni's mother, the couple's daughter and then killed himself. The murder-suicide rocked the quiet town of Roslyn, with the police commissioner saying, "It's very unusual that we have three, possibly four people shot dead."

In Naked Lunch, William Burroughs wrote that while on heroin he could stare at his shoe with rapt attention for hours on end. So it's fitting that the largest smack bust in Suffolk County history should involve footwear: Prosecutors announced today that the Suffolk County Heroin Task Force has seized 17 pounds of heroin found stashed inside plastic shoe insoles. Two unidentified New Jersey men were busted outside a Melville, NY hotel on July 25th. Officials say the powdered heroin was organized in small blocks in the insoles. An analysis has determined that the heroin is 85 to 90 percent pure and could have been divided into up to a half-million dosages, enough to make even the most boring pair of loafers look interesting for decades.

A Mister Softee ice cream truck driver on Long Island was arrested Saturday after undercover narcotics officers saw him park his truck outside a drug dealer's house they had under surveillance. Police say Kenneth Leiton, 22, rolled up to the home around 4 p.m. and entered the house to conduct a drug deal. He then returned to the truck, turned the music back on, and continued along his route. According to the Post, the cops soon "stopped him cold" and found several small bags of coke and a bag of pot hidden in the sprinkles. He's charged with numerous counts of possession of a controlled substance and with endangering the welfare of a child. Also arrested was Randall Surmanek, 23, who was riding in the truck with Leiton, and two individuals at the drug house. Police tell Newsday Leiton was not the truck owner, but it's still another black eye for Mister Softee—earlier this summer a Softee franchisee was accused of threatening to beat a Kool Man driver for invading "his" turf in Queens. And don't even get us started on the jingle wars.

Mary Jo Buttafuoco has found herself once again in bed with an abusive monster... adapt her story into a made-for-TV movie.

Yesterday afternoon in Lawrence, a man on a Yamaha personal jet ski with his 5-year-old son crashed full speed into a dock in Crooked Creek. Witnesses say the man appeared to lose control of the water bike. The man, 42-year-old Roopnarine Gopaul, was unconscious in the water while the boy was still on the jet ski; a witness told WCBS 2, "We had to lift the [broken, splintered] dock, break it apart to lift it off of them and get child out first." Gopaul was pronounced dead yesterday at St. John's Episcopal Hospital in Far Rockaway, while his son was pronounced dead this morning at Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow. According to MyFoxNY, some residents say the creek is dangerous and "isn't meant for high-speed boating" while Newsday reports that, according to a neighbor, the "dock was built a few years ago and is longer than other docks in the area."

A wake was held on Long Island today for five victims of Sunday's deadly crash on the Taconic Parkway. Diana Schuler was driving the wrong way before crashing into an SUV; Schuler, her daughter and three nieces died while three people inside the SUV were also killed. Autopsy results yesterday ruled out any signs of alcohol, drugs or a medical condition such as a stroke or an aneurysm, or even just sleepiness for 36-year-old Schuler. But today police say that during the phone call to her brother 30 minutes before the crash—when Schuler said she wasn't feeling well—she revealed that she was disoriented and was having trouble seeing. Schuler's family, who held a wake for their loved ones, issued a statement, "We extend our condolences to the Bastardi and Longo families [of the SUV victims] and regret the grief this tragic accident has caused." They also said that 5-year-old Bryan Schuler, the only survivor of the crash, is expected to make a full recovery. Police now await the results of further blood and toxicology tests, available in 4-6 weeks, saying, "We made sure that they’re going to test for everything because we don’t have an answer.”

Just as Jaws did for the Great White, the giant dead basking shark on Long Island last week caused some confusion about just how dangerous the beast is. The NY Times clears it all up today, tracking the confusion to a few years ago when several basking sharks swam into shallow waters off New York and "some reports held that these generally peaceful sharks can lash out and pose a potential danger to surfers and swimmers when they are wounded, as they usually are when they come ashore." But the experts say that the beast's hundreds of teeth make it almost impossible to bite a human, which is why they prefer swimming with their jaws open and swallowing up plankton. However, one expert told them, “When you have an animal that’s 25 feet long that’s thrashing around, that would be detrimental. They have a lot of power and that could be dangerous to the public. We would always encourage to stay back and not try to touch it or get close to it.” So in conclusion, if you see a giant, thrashing, 5,000 pound shark while wading in the ocean this summer: get thee to shore. Also, don't walk into oncoming traffic.

The shark stories are finally starting to show up this summer. Reports are that a not-quite-dead-yet 20-foot basking shark washed up at Long Island's Gilgo State Park this morning. By the time the state parks department was notified it was already dead, and from the looks of it beachgoers and reporters were getting their photo ops in. And yes, if we had the time, we'd Photoshop a shark asking a washed up 1010WINS reporter for a comment.

This Christmas, North Babylon's elaborate Christmas display at the Spadafora family's house on Kime Avenue isn't happening because it's gotten too expensive. Andrew Spadafora, who raised about $181,000 from onlookers of his million-light display (donated to a children's hospital), told Newsday, "Last year it cost me $41,000 to put Christmas together. We're still paying off last year's bills. After 20 years this thing has gotten bigger than Jones Beach." He's not kidding: Newsday counts "a 40-foot train, a manger with 100 sheep and a tree composed of 10,000 light bulbs," a total of 900 pieces, 30+ security cameras and a set-up time of 15 weeks (a crew of six, plus Spadafora). Spadafora also says he spent $175,000 on coloring books, candy canes, and toys to give to young onlookers, "Every year I get bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger, so what am I going to do, go backward?" You can see photographs of the "Christmas House" here—it's really amazing.

Ah, summer, when the news is sprinkled with a healthy portion of marine life sightings. This one could turn out to be the summer of dolphins! Yesterday we noted that following the sighting of 150-200 confused dolphins in Long Island Sound on Saturday, a pod of dolphins was spotted off the south end of City Island. Reportedly the group had started off as one (they were also sighted last Wednesday in Northport), and has now split in two: the City Island crew (team Bronx) and the the Long Island Sound crew (team Bayville).

On Thursday night, the FBI raided six locations in Queens and on Long Island that the agency believes supplies drugs to street gangs on Long Island. Newsday reports, "The arrests were the first phase in a long-term operation aimed at breaking up gangs, such as the Bloods and the Crips, by eventually charging members with drug offenses that carry long-term prison sentences." An FBI agent explained that the suspects would use a code—which was originally developed by the Five-Percenters (the suspects were not Five-Percenters)—that substituted numbers with words: "In the code, the number three, for example, stood for the word 'understanding' and the number six for 'equality.' So when the suspects said 'understanding' and 'equality' together, they were saying a kilo of cocaine cost $36,000," according to the agent. Four people were arrested, all pleaded not guilty to drug distribution charges and all were held without bail.

Okay, not really. But Flavorwire tagged along with Spencer Tunick to get a close-up look at the nakedest beach party in the Hamptons (surely it was fun getting all that sand off at the end of the day). The photographer set the scene for his latest nude project before dawn in Montauk, and the site reported back: "Tunick went through the setups he’d be arranging for the shoot, including a horrific-sounding pose called 'The Crab.' The group of 300 or so then trekked down to the beachfront, nestled between high cliffs and the picturesque Montauk Lighthouse, for more waiting. Once dawn arrived and the clouds broke, everyone stripped down and picked their way across the rocky beach to take position." And that's how the magic happens.

After DNA testing from the FBI proved that a Michigan resident was not 1955 kidnapping victim Steven Damman, his family and the Damman family are reeling from the whirlwind of publicity and questions. John Barnes truly believed he was the Long Island toddler who had been kidnapped at age two—partly because he never thought he fit in—and even appeared with Damman's sister Pamela Sue Horne, who was seven months old during the kidnapping, on the Today show hours before the DNA results were revealed. Horne was contacted by Barnes last fall, and she submitted to a DNA test that did not rule out that they could be related. She told Newsday this morning, "It's been a very long night," and was later seen in a wheelchair. And Cheryl Barnes, who was raised alongside John Barnes, told the Times, "This is all out of nowhere. He’s always saying something, and now it’s this? Is he saying our dad is a kidnapper?"

The East Patchogue, Long Island landlord who allegedly put videocameras in a tenant's apartment to spy on the 16-year-old daughter was held on $20,000 bail. Police say that Louis Basco, a self-employed handyman, "wired surveillance cameras to peer into the 16 year old's bedroom and bathroom. They say he gained access from her attic, where he comes and goes as the property owner." Tenant Robert Hayducka said, "He had a camera in our ceiling, which there were holes in my bathroom and in my daughter's room. Nowhere else were there holes but in my daughter's room." It's unclear how long the monitoring has been going on, but the police found enough circumstantial evidence to arrest him. In the mean time, the family has issued an order of protection against him.

Update: The AP is reporting that DNA test results have shown that John Barnes is not the same man as the toddler kidnapped on Long Island 54 years ago. Jerry Damman, the father of the missing Stephen Damman, said to reporters, "It's too bad we had to go through all of this for actually nothing in the end." The story from earlier continues below.

Last month, a few Long Island lawmakers called for a study to examine the possibility of Long Island statehood. Suffolk Comptroller Joseph Sawicki had said, "The state of Long Island has always been a romantic idea, its been fun to talk about and exciting to discuss. Now, it's become a matter of economic survival," and pointed out that Albany gets $3 billion more from Long Island than it gives back. Last night, Samantha Bee of the Daily Show decided to tackle the issue, speaking with Suffolk County Legislator Edward Romaine (pro-Long Island as the 51st State), State Senate Carl Marcellino (con-Long Island as the 51st State), and a three, um, typical Long Island guys who suggest that the Long Island state bird could be "flipping the bird."