VERGENNES — Vergennes police had a busy seven days between March 9 and 15, dealing with theft complaints and drug and alcohol issues, helping several motorists who were locked out of their cars, investigating an assault and an alleged sex tape, and handling a case of a motorist driving off without paying for gas that turned into a multi-town car chase ending with a Vermont State Police arrest in Hancock.
Police also earlier this week were still investigating a March 13 robbery of the People’s United Bank on Main Street in Vergennes; see story in this edition.
In that seven-day span, Vergennes police:
•  Responded on March 9 to a report of a laptop stolen at Vergennes Union High School; police said the laptop was found, but someone might have tried to steal it.
•  On March 9 were told that unauthorized withdrawals had been made on a resident’s bank account. Police referred the case to the bank and the attorney general’s office because the withdrawals originated from the state of Washington.
•  On March 9 helped a motorist get into a locked car on Second Street.
•  On March 9 checked a report of a man slumped over the steering wheel of a car parked at Shaw’s Supermarket and learned he was just napping.
•  On March 10 called the fire department to help a laborer trapped on a Green Street roof after his ladder fell.
•  On March 10 went to Woodman Hill on Route 7 to help state police with a two-car accident.
•  On March 10 took a report that a car parked on School Street had been struck by a car that had left the scene.
•  On March 10 cited Thomas Popke, 36, of Hinesburg for retail theft for leaving Champlain Farms without paying for $9.27 of gas. Popke fled the scene and was not collared until VSP pulled him over in Hancock. He faces multiple charges in the case.
•  On March 11 investigated the ransacking of one car and an apparent attempted break-in of another at a North Maple Street property. Police said nothing could be determined to be missing from the first vehicle, while the second received minor damage from the attempted break-in.
•  On March 11 took a report for insurance purposes of an accident that occurred on the Northlands Job Corps campus.
•  On March 11 issued an initial citation for driving under the influence of drugs to a truck driver they had stopped on Route 7 in Ferrisburgh just outside of Vergennes while doing special truck enforcement duty. Police said they smelled the odor of marijuana and confiscated three grams of the drug and a pipe. The citation will become final assuming positive results of a blood test, police said.
•  On March 11 helped a motorist get into a locked car at the Small City Market.
•  On March 11 and 12 ticketed cars in violation of the city’s wintertime ban on overnight street parking. They issued six tickets on the 11th and three on the 12th.
•  On March 12 helped motorists get into their locked cars on Main Street and at Northlands.
•  On March 12 ordered towed an ATV abandoned on private property near the Monkton Road armory.
•  On March 12 heard an allegation from a Northlands student that a video of her having consensual sex was being distributed around the center. Police were earlier this week trying to verify the allegation.
•  On March 12 and also on March 15 found the door to a West Main Street apartment open, checked to make sure all was OK, and locked the door.
•  On March 12 counseled a young couple who had been arguing at a Main Street apartment belonging to one of their parents.
•  On March 12 went to a North Green Street residence to investigate a complaint from a man that a woman had assaulted her; while there, they said the woman told them she had given the man money to buy hashish and police discovered a small quantity of the drug on her. They gave her a civil ticket for possession.
•  On March 13 checked a report of a suspicious car at Alden Place, but found nothing.
•  On March 13 cited Northlands student Brian Miranda-Vega, 23, of Bridgeport, Conn., for furnishing alcohol to a minor. Police that evening issued court diversion paperwork to two Northlands students for possession of alcohol by a minor, one in the same incident and one in a separate incident.
•  On March 14 called the Vergennes Area Rescue Squad to help a drunken man wearing a walking boot who had fallen into an Alden Place pothole.
•  On March 14 checked a report of voices heard behind an Alden Place residence, but found nothing.