The following information was provided by the Watertown Police Department.
Arrests
None
Incidents
July 19, 12 p.m.: A woman wanted to cancel a flight she had booked on Priceline and contacted a number she found online. The person she thought was a customer service representative gave her a promotional offer to rebook the flight. She was told she would have to pay $300 in Target gift cards. The woman went to Target and bought the cards, and then contacted the number and gave the person the gift card numbers. The person on the other end of the call said that the card numbers did not work and she should go back and purchase more cards. The resident got suspicious and contacted Target customer services. Then she called back the so-called Priceline rep and said she believed he was lying. The person on the other end swore at her and hung up. Police attempted to call the number and reached someone saying they were working for Cheapo Air. The person hung up on police. The incident is under investigation.
July 20, 1:45 p.m.: A 68-year-old Watertown man parked his bike outside Shake Shack and went in for about 25 minutes. When he came back out he realized the bike had been stolen. The purple 2021 Giant Escape comfort bike had been purchased about a month before for around $550. Security footage shows a suspect take the bike at about 1:20 p.m. and was last seen riding off onto Arsenal Street. The suspect wore black pants, grey shoes, a black shirt and a red and black baseball hat. The following day, the same suspect was seen on security video stealing a bike at Target.
July 19, 6:52 p.m.: A North Beacon Street resident parked in the driveway and came out to find that the driver’s side door was slightly ajar. When the person looked inside she found her glove box and center console were open, and her registration, title, and air fresheners were gone. Police are investigating.
July 20, 12:21 a.m.: A man from Walpole bought a Galaxy S21 on Craigslist for $550 and agreed to meet the seller at Victory Field on July 14 at 9:45 p.m. Five days after getting the phone, it locked and he got a message saying it had been disabled due to lack of payments to Rent-a-Center in Leominster. When he contacted customer care at Rent-a-Center the man was told the phone had been stolen. Police are investigating.
July 20, 1:24 p.m.: A 64-year-old man was the victim of an unemployment scam. He went online to file for unemployment benefits and when he tried to log on he got a message that he needed to enter his password. He had not registered for an account so he did not know why he was being asked for a password. He contacted state officials who said his account had been compromised, and someone had made a claim for COVID-19 benefits. He was told to file a report with police. The state is investigating.
July 22, 10:25 a.m.: A Brimmer Road resident had found on a couple occasions that someone had left excrement in his driveway. He set up a camera and on July 22 the footage showed a woman go between the two vehicles in his driveway and go to the bathroom on the driveway. The suspect is a white female, between 50 and 60 years of age, with a skinny build, between 5-fo0t-5 and 5-foot-7, and wore a navy blue fleece tracksuit, navy blue New Balance sneakers with pink writing and a brown bucket hat. The resident did not recognize the woman. Police are investigating.
July 23, 11:30 p.m.: A car parked on Berkeley Street had its rear window shattered. A witness spotted the damage at about 11:30 p.m.. A large rock was found inside the vehicle. The owner does not know who would have caused the damage.
July 24, 5:11 p.m. Several packages went missing, reported a resident of the apartments on Woodview Way. The resident notice packages missing for the prior three weeks, and the thefts occurred on five different dates. They contained a variety of items worth a total of $300. Police are investigating.
July 25, 5 p.m.: A fire at a home on Edenfield Avenue was reported and the officer who arrived first saw smoke coming out the upstairs windows and the rear porch screen. Firefighters arrived and put out the fire, which was stopped in the kitchen before it could spread. One of the residents had been heating oil on the stove, left the room briefly and came back and it had caught on fire. The flames extended to the cabinets above the stove. The cabinets were damaged and the panel behind the stove melted. Smoke damaged the entire downstairs unit of the two-family home. The resident and her son got out of the home safely and no one was home in the second-floor unit. The kitchen area sustained significant damage.
That’s what they gave me. The police give other details if they have them.