Wellesley, Mass., police log for the week of Dec. 23-29.

Arrests

On December 24, 2019 at 6:18 p.m. Officer Harris was dispatched to the area of Worcester Street eastbound for a report of an erratic operator. The reporting party stated a white van was unable to stay in its lane of travel and had almost struck her vehicle. Officer Harris located the vehicle on Worcester Street near Dearborn Road and spoke with the operator, and requested his license and registration. Officer Harris noticed that the operator had glassy and bloodshot eyes, his speech was slurred, he was drooling on himself and he had urinated on himself. There was a strong odor of alcoholic beverages emanating from the vehicle. The driver agreed to take some reasonable tests of balance and coordination to determine if he was able to safely operate a motor vehicle. He was unable to successfully pass these tests. He was taken into custody, transported to the station, booked in the usual manner, afforded all rights and later released on $150 bail.

On December 29, 2019 at 2:33 p.m. Officer Mankavech was dispatched to the area of Bay State Road for a report of an erratic operator driving a Ram truck. The reporting party stated the vehicle was traveling on the wrong side of the road. Officer Mankavech located the truck on Washington Street at Pine Street. He observed the truck swerving within its lane of travel and as it was merging onto Worcester Street from Washington Street it stopped in the intersection. He stopped the vehicle and spoke with the operator, and requested his license and registration. The driver had difficulty finding the requested documents, there was an odor of an alcoholic beverage emanating from the vehicle and his person, his speech was slurred and his eyes were glassy and bloodshot. He agreed to take some reasonable tests to determine if he was able to safely operate a motor vehicle. He was unable to successfully pass those tests. He was taken into custody, transported to the station, booked in the usual manner, afforded all rights and later released on $100 bail.

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Incidents

On December 23, 2019 at 7:30 a.m. Officer Wagner spoke with a female reporting party regarding fraud. She stated she noticed a popup alert on her computer about a week prior and contacted the phone number provided. She stated she spoke with 2 individuals from “TechMax” and scanned a copy of a personal check for $649.99 and then cancelled the payment the following day because she felt uncomfortable with sending a check electronically. She stated she received emails

from the “TechMax” customer service department and agreed to provide payment in the form of Walmart gift cards for $650. On December 21st she became aware that her checking account was overdrawn by $880,000. The incident is under investigation.

On December 23, 2019 at 3:07 p.m. Officer Hughes spoke with a reporting party from a business on Grove Street regarding a check scam. The report is incomplete at this time and no further information is available.

On December 23, 2019 at 7:20 p.m. Officer D. Popovski spoke with a male party who stated his Rolex Submariner watch was missing [Editor’s note: Such watches easily go for at least $10K] and he hadn’t seen it since December 19th. He stated that he noticed on December 21st that he did not have the watch with him at the gym and then was unable to find it when he returned home. He stated the house cleaner sometimes has a helper come and on December 19th the cleaner and a helper he was unfamiliar with were at the house. The reporting party asked the cleaner if she or the helper took the watch and the cleaner denied that either would take it. Officer Popovski is following up with the cleaner. The watch is valued at $8,350.

On December 26, 2019 at 5:00 p.m. a male reporting party stated that he received disturbing text messages from an unknown person. He stated the text messages contained images of body parts that had been cut off. The reporting party blocked the number. Officer Dixon spoke with Detective D’Innocenzo who was aware of similar instances of this and was advised it is a scam where the sender claims to be a member of a drug cartel and demands money and threatens to harm the individual and their family if they do not pay.