Police turn out in numbers to save allegedly ill woman
An officer on patrol just before 5:30 a.m. on Sept. 29 encountered a couple “clearly under the influence” of a controlled dangerous substance at 131 Kinderkamack Road.
The officer was patrolling south when he saw a man wearing only shorts standing on the sidewalk. The officer turned around to investigate.
He reports he then saw a woman, in her brassiere, “screaming for help from the second story window.” The officer called for backup, receiving it from several officers from the borough and surrounding jurisdictions.
The man in shorts alleged to officers that the woman, now hanging halfway out the window, has a history of mental illness and that both of them had recently smoked marijuana.
He said she had locked him out of his apartment, with his keys and phone inside.
The reporting officer said he feared for the woman’s safety. He and the man in shorts went to the rear of the building and gained entry via a fire escape to an unlocked door.
Officers entered the apartment and observed the woman now sitting on the couch in the living room, still screaming for help.
“I immediately detected an odor of burnt and raw marijuana inside of the apartment and observed marijuana and paraphernalia in plain sight,” the report reads in part.
The woman was incoherent and would not respond to questions as to why she was screaming. Indeed, she allegedly became “more irrational and began to climb out the window again.”
The officer reports he grabbed the woman’s legs to prevent her from going out further,” and she began wriggling out of her jeans and seemed intent on going out the window head first.
Additional officers joined the effort inside the apartment to protect the woman. They eventually got her inside and handcuffed her for her everyone’s safety.
Officers waiting outside the apartment with the man in shorts later conveyed to the reporting officer that he was emotionally unstable during the incident, alternately calm then screaming in anger, and then crying.
Tri-Boro Ambulance was requested to respond for a transport to New Bridge Medical Center. One officer is familiar with the woman and confirmed, as the report says, that “she has a long history of drug abuse and mental illness.”
Evidence was secured. There were no signs of a struggle between the two parties, and neither had bruising, bleeding, or complaint of pain.
Police said they believe this incident was solely verbal in nature and was intensified by the mixture of mental illness and illegal narcotics use.
“Both parties have known each other for several weeks and established some kind of relationship which led to the events of today,” the report says.
In screaming obscenities and accusations at police as they worked to save her, she was so loud that she could be heard from Pascack Road near Colony Avenue, from where concerned residents called 9-1-1.
The man in shorts said all items in the apartment were his. He was arrested over possession of marijuana under 50 grams, possession of narcotics paraphernalia, and being under the influence of a controlled dangerous substance.
Florida man out of time on illegal sales in church lot
A Florida man busted for selling watches out of his Land Rover at United Methodist Church on the afternoon of Sept. 27 told police he didn’t think he needed a solicitation permit for the activity, as he does not sell door to door.
He said he has a business in Florida and sells out of state in this fashion part of the year.
The man, from Miami Beach, apologized and said he didn’t know about the borough ordinance, which requires a permit for sales door to door and street to street.
Police issued a summons for unlawful solicitation. Defendant was to appear at Pascack Joint Municipal Court on Oct. 23..
Working in his car, man is reported as suspicious
A Murphy Way resident called police on a suspicious person in a vehicle the afternoon of Sept. 26. Police checked it out, later reporting the driver explained he was working via phone and computer in his car “because his house was noisy with his children at home.” Police took no further action.
Adoration and theft on North Avenue
A North Avenue resident presented herself at police headquarters Oct. 2 to report the disappearance of her 2-foot-tall Virgin Mary statue, which she last saw near her front door. She said she walked up and down the street looking for it but did not see it.
An officer drove around the area as well but did not find the statue. The resident said she just wanted the incident on file.