VERGENNES — Vergennes police between Jan. 28 and Feb. 2 dealt with a number of new home and car break-ins around the city and also conducted a number of patrols in areas that had been hit by a number of attempted break-ins and other suspicious activity late last month.
New thefts, suspicious activity or break-ins were reported on Meigs Road, where on Jan. 28 a chainsaw was stolen from a home; on Second Street, where a homeowner heard a doorknob tested and police found footprints on Jan. 29; Comfort Hill, where a chainsaw and a GPS unit were stolen from a home on Feb. 2; South Water Street, where a car was gone through, but nothing taken, on Feb. 2; South Maple Street, where a GPS unit was stolen from a car on Feb. 2; South Maple Street, where a car was gone through on Feb. 3; and Walker Avenue, where gas was siphoned from a car and its cabin was gone through on Feb. 3.
Police also patrolled First, Second and Third streets in the Panton Road mobile home park and Green Mountain Power property around the nearby Otter Creek falls on Jan. 28, 29, 30 and 31. Those areas had been the site of theft attempts and suspicious activity the week before.
In other incidents between Jan. 28 and Feb. 2, Vergennes police:
•  On Jan. 28 helped find a despondent Northlands Job Corps student who had left the MacDonough Drive campus. Police found him on Route 22A trying to hitchhike home to Massachusetts, and Northlands personnel agreed to drive him home.
•  In a Jan. 28 snowstorm helped Vermont State Police by handling an accident at the base of Woodman Hill on Route 7.
•  On Jan. 29 dealt with a minor two-car accident on Monkton Road.
•  On Jan. 29 dealt for the first of three times in seven days with a landlord-tenant dispute on South Maple Street. On the 29th, police heard conflicting reports of an incident there; on the 31st they stood by while the landlord inspected the apartment; and Feb. 1 they stood by while the tenant moved out.
•  On Jan. 30 secured an unlocked door at a New Haven Road business.
•  On Jan. 30 dealt with a hit-and-run fender-bender in the Shaw’s Supermarket parking lot.
•  On Jan. 30 calmed and separated a couple arguing at a First Street home; later in the week, police told the woman not to make harassing calls to the man.
•  On Jan. 30 spoke to a female Vergennes Union Elementary Union student who was sending inappropriate pictures to other students.
•  On Jan. 31 received a tip about illegal drug activity at Vergennes Union High School.
•  On Jan. 31 cited Northlands student Aysha Toney, 19, of Bridgeport, Conn., for simple assault for allegedly punching another female student in the face twice, causing minor injuries. Toney was lodged at the Chittenden County Correctional Center.
•  Twice on Jan. 31 and once on Feb. 2 responded to noise complaints from a Hillside Acres apartment resident about a neighbor, something police said is an ongoing issue.
•  On Feb. 2 referred to the FBI a case of ongoing phone harassment of a VUHS teacher that police said was related to a scam; police said the teacher was receiving dozens of calls a day at work.
•  On Feb. 2 responded on behalf of VSP to an alarm in Ferrisburgh that proved to be false.
•  On Feb. 2 tried unsuccessfully to find a man in a white van reported to be taking pictures of the Vergennes Area Rescue Squad headquarters.
•  On Feb. 2 accepted a wallet that a resident found and contacted its owner.
•  On Feb. 2 took a sworn statement from a local resident on behalf of Brandon police.
•  On Feb. 2 accepted unused prescription meds for destruction.
•  On Feb. 3 helped Middlebury police with the department canine when a woman was reported missing, but quickly learned she had been found.
•  On Feb. 3 calmed a mother-daughter dispute at a West Street residence that had included the daughter dumping Jell-O on her mother.
•  On Feb. 3 went to Monkton Road to check the welfare of a resident, but he could not be found.