CRUISER CRASH

At 3:21 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 30, a member of the Warwick Police Department Patrol Division was responding to a priority call in a marked cruiser in the area of Post Road and Greene Street when it was involved in a crash with another vehicle.

The cruiser left the roadway and struck the residential property at 2536 Post Road, according to a press release from the Warwick Police Department.

The police officer and the two occupants of the other vehicle were transported to the hospital and treated for minor injuries, according to Warwick Police. Both vehicles were towed from the scene and there is structural damage at the residential property, according to the press release.

The Warwick Police Department Crash Reconstruction Team responded to the scene and is investigating the crash, according to police.

LARCENY

Warwick Police were dispatched Nov. 22 to RSM Electric at 5 Soule St., for the report of a larceny.

Upon arrival, police met with the business owner, who told them he had a large amount of streetlights stolen from outside of his business some time over the weekend, according to the police incident report. He showed police four empty pallets outside that had been stacked with large streetlights.

“Sometime over the weekend approximately 40 streetlights were taken from our place of business,” the business owner told police, according to the police report. “Each light with a value of approximately $150 totaling 40 lights with an approximate value of $6,000. These lights were used, and in the process of refurbishment for one of our jobs. Good fixtures were taken with the bad ones left behind on one pallet. A poor conditioned pickup truck was caught on camera circling the building on Sunday. I would like to press charges.”

The owner provided printed images of screen shots from his Ring doorbell camera showing the truck. The truck appeared to be a dark green or blue, long body Chevy pickup truck, according to police. The back driver’s side window appeared to be blown out and covered with cardboard, police said.

Police could not read the truck’s license plate on the images.

The business owner provided police with a thumb drive containing footage of the truck circling the business twice around 12:40 p.m. Sunday.

DUI

At 12:29 a.m., Nov. 19, Warwick Police Officer Connor R. Bemis was traveling north on Jefferson Boulevard in the area of Lincoln Avenue in a marked cruiser on patrol, when he observed a vehicle traveling in front of him with no tail or front lights activated, according to a police incident report.

“It should be noted that it was raining at this time, making the vehicle near impossible to see on the roadway,” Bemis wrote.

Bemis wrote that he observed the vehicle “erratically swerve from the left lane into the right lane without using a turn signal over the dotted lines” and then “almost drive into a closed construction zone.”

The vehicle then swerved erratically back into the left lane over the dotted lines, continuing north on Jefferson Boulevard at a low rate of speed, according to the report.

Bemis then conducted a traffic stop and another Warwick officer arrived on scene to assist.

Police eventually identified the driver as Milton Sanjel, of 10 Harvey St., Apt. R, Pawtucket. The driver could only produce a Guatemalan ID card.

After detecting the strong odor of alcohol, Bemis wrote Sanjel’s eyes were bloodshot and watery, and his speech was slurred. Sanjel submitted to a series of standardized field sobriety tests, and police eventually charged him with DUI of Liquor (0.15 or greater, first offense), a misdemeanor, and he received a District Court summons for Driving with Expired License or Without License (first offense).

SHOPLIFTING

At 2:44 p.m. on Nov. 18, Warwick Police responded to Best Buy, at 24 Universal Boulevard, to investigate a report of past shoplifting. A loss prevention associate at the store told police that a white female wearing a flannel shirt, with nose rings and dirty blond hair with blue trim entered the store carrying a black backpack, according to the police incident report.

The woman allegedly proceeded to the automotive section of the store and picked up a portable car jump pack valued at $129.99

The woman left the store without paying, and the loss prevention associate told police she crossed Route 2 heading toward the area of LA Fitness.

If the suspect is identified, the associate told police that Best Buy would like to press criminal charges.

FAILURE TO STOP

On Oct. 4, Warwick Police followed up on a hit-and-run accident that occurred on Sept. 17 in Warwick.

The crash victim told police that a gray 2004 BMW bearing Rhode Island plates struck his vehicle and left the scene without stopping.

The victim said he got a good look at the driver and described him as a white male in his late teens to early 20s, with brown hair in a “bowl” haircut, skinny with an athletic build, according to the police incident report.

The victim told police he would like to press charges and would be able to identify the suspect in a photo lineup.

According to the police report, a cross agency vehicle query yielded an operator that matched the description provided by the victim.

The driver was identified as Devyn Vecchio, 18. According to police incident reports, Vecchio is listed as living at two different addresses: 410 Woonasquatucket Ave., North Providence, and 2 Surrey Drive, Johnston.

“I made multiple attempts to contact the registered owner of the vehicle as well as Vecchio but was hung up on multiple occasions when I stated that I was an Officer of the Warwick Police Department inquiring about the accident,” Warwick Police Officer David L. Boardman wrote in an incident report.

On Oct. 4, the victim came into the Warwick Police Headquarters and was able to positively identify Vecchio as the suspect from the September crash with “99% positivity,” according to the report. Warwick Police said a warrant was issued for Vecchio’s arrest for one count of Failure to Stop for an Accident Resulting in Damage.

At 2:11 a.m. on Nov. 18, two Warwick Police officers were dispatched to North Providence Police Headquarters to pick up Vecchio. He was cuffed and secured in the back of a cruiser, driven to Warwick PD headquarters, and secured in a cell, fingerprinted, photographed and processed, according to police. Vecchio was assigned a Third District Court date on Dec. 7 and released around 5:32 a.m. with a copy of his summons.