Police Log: Boston Wedding Guest's 'Hangover' Moment in Belmont

Bang goes the cuffs

July 19 – A Southie man was arrested for being out of control and breaking furniture at a Merrill Avenue house. A woman called to say there was a fight in the house at the corner of Blanchard Road with a lot of yelling and assorted banging around. Police arrived to find Joshua Epps, 25, of 115 Flaherty Way in South Boston doing most of the yelling and banging. He was arrested for disorderly conduct and destruction of property, the furniture.

And the Cat ran away with the fork

July 20 – Officers were sent to a construction site at the corner of Oakley and Belmont when workers arriving to work in the morning discovered their large Caterpillar bulldozer on Oakley after it was parked in the construction site the night before. They also discovered their fork-lift truck missing. A neighbor told investigators that he heard noises around 11:30 p.m. and saw a man in the 'Cat' placing the fork lift into the bed of a white pickup.

Four-day head start

July 20 – An employee of a Pleasant Street business said that sometime between July 16 to 20, someone stole $107 from a filing cabinet. It is under investigation.

All that work for what

July 20 – A Stewart Terrace resident was called by her bank to asked if she had written a $36,000 check to the account of another person. "No," she said and hung up. A few minutes later, the bank called again and asked her to come around to discuss some unusual goings-on with her account. Apparently, someone late last year called the bank's call center to send over a new bank card and PIN number which the resident said she never received. Then another call to the call center changed her contact phone number. Furthermore, $43,000 was taken from her savings account and placed in her checking account, again after a call to the bank's center. And after all the mysterious work, no funds had been taken. The resident has placed a hold on her accounts.

He didn't leave a shoe

July 20 – Five minutes before midnight, a police patrol saw a driver make like Cinderella speeding down Belmont Street at a high rate of speed. When officers caught up with James Chao, 30, of 96 Horace Rd., his car didn't turn into a pumpkin at midnight but he was arrested for speeding, passing where he shouldn't have and operating under the influence, liquor.

Ladder take off

July 23 – Just after 7 p.m., a man who parked his work truck on Bradley Road overnight discovered that someone overnight had cut several tie down straps and took a 16 foot ladder valued at $100 from the truck.

A California Apple

July 23 – A Willow Street resident decided to run a credit check on herself and soon discovered that someone had opened a PayPal account in her name on Ebay using her credit information. The unknown person then purchased an Apple computer for $865 and had the item sent to an address in California. She cancelled "her" account.

Taken his plates

July 23 – Just after 7 p.m., a Belmont officer saw a woman driving a car that he knew had a suspended license. When he stopped her, the officer discovered not only didn't she have an up-to-date license, the license tags belonged on another car. Natasha Paola, 23, of 85 Concord Ave. was arrest for operating with a suspended license and a 31-year-old Belmont man was summoned to court to answer charges of changing those license plates and allowing an uninsured driver to use his car.

His 'Hangover' moment

July 23 – Pity the poor 30-year-old Rhode Island man. Either he doesn't know Boston all that well or he was having a moment right out of the "Hangover" film series on Monday night. Apparently the man was a guest at a Boston wedding – on a Monday? – but for some odd reason told Belmont Police that he had parked his car "in the Habitat" before heading to the festivities. And what a great time he had ... until he went to retrieve his car because he couldn't find it ... after spending three hours walking from Boston and Belmont searching for it. (There is the possibility that the wedding was close by and he thought any location within Rt. 128 can be considered "Boston.") It was just before midnight when he stumbled across Belmont Police at the corner of Concord Avenue and Robinwood Road, near the town's incinerator site, finally admitting that he was "lost." It didn't help matters that he was unsteady on his feet and had that unmistakable odor of alcohol coming from his person. The officers decided it was best to take him into protective custody for the night so he could continue his search in the morning.