MYSTERY MONEY

Officer Mallory Reis reported she was on patrol around 7 p.m. March 7 when she was dispatched to the corner of New London Avenue and Sockanossett Cross Road for a head-on collision. The driver of a pickup truck said he was on Sockanossett, stopped at the traffic light, when the Nissan Maxima turned left onto Sockanossett and was headed right for the pickup truck. The driver told Reis he tried to back up and out of the way, but got hit head-on anyway. He said he saw the driver’s eyes get really large as he realized he was going to hit the truck. He said he believed the guy in the Maxima was drunk. Reis said she spoke with the Maxima driver and arrived at the same conclusion, even though he claimed he didn’t have anything to drink. She said he smelled of alcohol and failed a field sobriety test. She said she arrested the driver on suspicion of DUI and took him to headquarters. She said another officer frisked the driver and found a lot of money on him, and that the Special Investigations Unit did an inventory search of the Maxima and found even more money. Leigh Tharpe, 39, of 1071 Lodge St. in Woonsocket, was charged with DUI and refusal and later released with a summons. According to the police report, $8,342 was found in the passenger compartment; $3,513 on his person; $5,320 found in the trunk; $482 under the driver’s seat; $3,200 in an envelope in the trunk; $4,600 in another envelope; $3,000 in another envelope; $10,600 in a wallet; $4,910 in another wallet in the trunk; $12,100 in yet another wallet and one more wallet containing $10. According to Reis’s report, $56,067 was retrieved from the car. The narrative doesn’t say what happened to the money, or offer a reason for Tharpe to be carrying it.

WHY THEY

GET CAUGHT

Officer Louis Pezzullo reported he was doing a traffic detail at Taco Bell around 1:25 a.m. March 9 when he saw a red Chevy and a gray Saab enter the drive-thru line. He said he saw the Saab pull up softly behind the Chevy, make contact with its bumper and gently push it until the Chevy put on its brakes, and then backed up. He said the Saab repeated this several times, and then deliberately maintained contact and pushed the Chevy forward as the drivers were yelling at each other. He said he was convinced they were fooling around, but he approached the Saab anyway and told him to cut it out. He said he asked for the papers for the car and driver and learned all he had was a handwritten bill of sale with no date or notary stamp. He said there was no insurance documentation and no registration. He said he confiscated the plates off the car and called for a tow for the Saab that was parked in the lot. He said the driver and his two passengers squeezed into the red Chevy for the ride home.

CHASED DOWN

Officer John Rocchio reported that several patrols were dispatched to the Mansion House Apartments just after 12 a.m. March 9. A witness told dispatch two men stole a tire and rim from a car parked at the complex and ran toward the bike path and threw the tire over a fence before they jumped the fence. Rocchio said he found fresh footprints in the snow. He said the footprints were evaporating quickly, so he took pictures of them, using his flashlight as a size reference. Other officers continued to search while Rocchio spoke with the victim, who said someone took the tire and rim off her Honda CRV and she would press charges. Another tenant told Rocchio he saw the two men and gave him a description of them. In the meantime, Officer Ross Manzotti called to report he had three people in custody who fit the description. He said the witness did a show up at Manzotti’s stop and positively identified two of them as the men he saw stealing the wheel. Rocchio reported that the witness looked at the third suspect and said he did not see him near the scene of the crime, but it wasn’t long before one of the suspects told police the other two men stole the tire and he only acted as a lookout but he could show them where they threw the tire. He said one of the other suspects was wearing a match for the footprint he photographed on the bike path and other evidence began to cluster around the suspects. Ricky Dalomba, 20, David J. Denuccio, 18, and Stephen A. Carter, 19, all of Cranston, were charged with larceny and conspiracy to commit larceny. The tire and rim, worth $300, were returned to the owner.