Crime & Safety

OMG PD: The New 'Hole In The Wall Gang' — Literally

We compile the odd, unusual and 'oh my gosh' police items from throughout the region.

The New 'Hole In The Wall Gang' — Literally:

Johnston Police found two men who were wanted on various charges hiding inside the wall of a service station. The cops were out looking for one of the men on two outstanding warrants for credit card fraud. When they got to the service station where the man had been renting a service bay (and not paying, it turns out), he tried to run and hide. The owner of the station took the cops into an office where they found the man hiding in a hole in the wall with a second suspect, who was also wanted on court warrants.

A side of finger with your coke, sir?

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A couple of men tried their best to hide the drugs but failed when Woonsocket officers pulled them over. The first clue was a heavy smell of marijuana inside the car. A passenger told officers that he had smoked marijuana two hours earlier, while he appeared to be fidgeting with something on the floor of the car. When the driver got out of the SUV, he tried to make a cell phone call with one hand, while reaching inside his jacket with the opposite hand. He pulled out a bag containing a white substance and put it in his mouth. The officer reached into his mouth to grab the bag, but the 29-year-old bit down on the officer’s index finger. The two struggled, with the suspect continuing to bite the officer’s finger, until a burst of OC spray resolved that situation. The officer pulled out two grams of cocaine.  In the passenger seat, police found a bag of marijuana ripped open and spread into the floor board. Police recovered 50 grams, or roughly $200, of pot.

Where didn’t they find pot?

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A 25-year-old Newport man with a valid license to both have and distribute medical marijuana was arrested when police officers found a lot more pot than expected. Officers searching his apartment found marijuana in a safe, in jars and in a cigar box, along with 16 marijuana plants in his roommate’s bedroom. They also caught the man selling pot illegally to an undercover officer without a valid medical marijuana license, found $2,757 in cash inside the apartment, and the U.S. postal service seized a package with $16,000 being sent to California, which police suspected was for a large amount of marijuana. He was charged with allegedly selling high-grade marijuana from his apartment.

Police escorts don't work that way:

A 41-year-old Narragansett woman tried her best to get the nice police officers to help her out, but they declined, when she was pulled over for drunk driving at about 1:20 a.m. According to police, the woman cut off an officer and another car while leaving Mariner Square in her 2012 white GMC Yukon Denali. When the officer pulled her over and asked where she was coming from, she said she had forgotten her phone. She then asked, “Can’t you just follow me home?” Instead, they watched as she allegedly failed a field sobriety test, and they led her to the police station.

Smells like rotten eggs:

Woonsocket police officers arrested a 34-year-old man who triggered gas leaks in two residences. Officers first responded to a three-story apartment for a gas leak, called in by the third-floor tenant. He said his first-floor neighbor had stolen a meter from an abandoned home and that he was worried the building would blow up. After nearly 20 minutes of knocking, a first-floor resident (whose gas had been turned off recently) answered the door, and officers instantly noticed a rotten egg smell, normally used by National Grid to identify leaks. In a bedroom inside the apartment, police found a meter, which had been taken from an abandoned home. Officers and emergency personnel from National Grid were able to gain access to that home through an unlocked window, where they found a missing meter, which was also leaking gas.

Wedding reception disruption:

The happy couple had a less happy wedding night after a fight broke out and the groom’s brother smashed a bottle into the head of another wedding guest at the Disabled American Veterans Hall in Braintree, MA. The fight allegedly started when one man threw a punch at a 25-year-old woman, whose boyfriend then stepped in to defend her. That’s when a wider fight broke out, and the brother of the groom allegedly hit the second man with the beer bottle. The bottle-smasher, a man from Attleboro, fled the hall and was gone before police arrived.


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