Crime & Safety
Sag Harbor Police: Donation Jar Thief Arrested
Cops say a Quogue man on probation ran off with donation intended for crash victim.
Sag Harbor Village police arrested the man who they say made off with a donation jar intended for a local woman who was struck by a Jeep Jan. 15 while crossing the street.
The jar was placed on the counter of the 7-Eleven on West Water Street to take up a collection for Jhenny Bueno Arias, an employee of the store, who was airlifted to Stony Brook University Hospital with serious injuries after the accident.
According to The East Hampton Star, Bueno Arias is a 36-year-old single mother of four.
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Police said that a man took the donation jar and drove off on Feb. 2 at 8:10 p.m.
The thief was described as white man in his 30s, approximately 6 feet tall, wearing a white baseball hat, a Grey Goose hooded sweatshirt with the number 73, blue jeans and tan work boots. The thief fled in a black Ford SUV, and the license plate number was recorded, according to police.
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A witness identified Thomas Palumbo, 37, of Quogue, on Feb. 4 in a photo line up prepared by Det. Jeffrey Proctor, according to the arrest report.
Palumbo was on probation, police said, so when he reported for an appointment at the Suffolk County Probation Department on Feb. 7 he was held and arrested at 5 p.m. on a misdemeanor charge of petty larceny. After being transported to Sag Harbor Village police headquarters, Palumbo was processed and released on $100 stationhouse bail.
