December 23
No pants
At about 6 p.m., Officers Tyler Coady and Dana Dexter were sent to the area behind 10 Ferry St., near the Interstate 393 overpass, for an intoxicated person.
According to Dexter’s report, dispatch had said a drunk homeless man was rolling around in a snowbank with his pants down.
Sgt. Clifford Kahrs, Officer Charles Wrobelewski and Dexter arrived around the same time, Dexter wrote, and Dexter saw a man on the side of the hill next to I-393 sitting in the snow. Kahrs said it was Norman Gallant, 25.
“We had to climb up the hill that was knee deep in snow and over a fence to get to Gallant,” Dexter wrote. “Gallant was yelling and slurring his words that he was intoxicated. When we got to him, I observed that Gallant’s jeans were down by his knees.”
Gallant told them he’d been arrested four days ago and had broken his bail conditions, Dexter wrote. Dexter could smell a strong odor of alcohol on Gallant, according to the report.
Wrobelewski and Dexter helped Gallant up and escorted him down the hill, Dexter wrote.
“It took two officers to hold up Gallant as we walked over to the cruiser,” Dexter wrote.
Dexter found a copy of Gallant’s bail conditions in his pants pocket; they stated that Gallant was to refrain from using alcohol, Dexter wrote.
Dexter arrested and handcuffed Gallant and took him to the police station, according to the report.
No bail was set for Gallant, and he was taken to the county jail. He was due to be arraigned the next morning.
December 23
Shopping spree
At about 9:30, Officers Joseph Pitta and Craig Levesque went to Sears for a report of a shoplifter.
According to Pitta’s report, they met with Sears employees and the suspect, Paul Eugene Haskell, 23, of Laconia.
The employees said they’d watched Haskell push a shopping cart around the store, and that he’d made a return, then purchased a toaster oven and some other items that were in his shopping cart.
They said Haskell pushed the cart to the shoe department and put on a new pair of Timberland boots, then put his sneakers in the Timberland box and put the box in the cart, then walked around the store with the boots on, pushing the cart, then went to the tool department and selected a scan tool, which he put under the basket of his cart, Pitta wrote.
They said Haskell then pushed the cart out of the store, where one of the employees was waiting, Pitta wrote. He asked Haskell to go back into the store with him, and Haskell complied, Pitta wrote.
The employees said Haskell admitted to stealing the boots and scan tool, Pitta wrote, and they showed Pitta the boots, which were scuffed up and no longer in saleable condition.
Pitta asked Haskell if he had any weapons, and Haskell said no; Pitta then checked him for weapons, he wrote, and found a heavy object in his right jacket pocket.
“Haskell said, ‘I took that, too,’ ” Pitta wrote. “I removed the object from his pocket and found that it was a set of ‘Bolt Outs,’ a tool for removing stripped bolts. I finished checking him for weapons and found him to be unarmed.”
Pitta advised Haskell of his Miranda rights, he wrote, and Haskell said he understood and would talk to Pitta about the incident.
“Haskell said he stole the items because he was given a limit of how much he could spend by his mother,” Pitta wrote.
“He used his mother’s credit card for his purchase. Haskell said that he could not really explain why he stole the items. He said, ‘I don’t know, I’m just f***** up.’ ” Pitta spoke to Haskell’s mother on the phone, and she confirmed that he was her son and that she’d given him permission to use her credit card, Pitta wrote.
The employees told Pitta that the total value of the items recovered from Haskell came to $449.98, Pitta wrote.
Pitta called Haskell’s name in to dispatch and found there was an electronic bench warrant from the Laconia District Court for failure to pay fines, he wrote, and then placed Haskell under arrest.
The items that he had purchased were given to his brother, who was waiting outside the store, Pitta wrote.
Haskell was taken to the police station and booked without incident, Pitta wrote. While conducting an inventory of his property, Pitta found that he had $2,432.61 in cash on him, he wrote.
Bail on Haskell’s bench warrant was $180 cash, and bail on his shoplifting charge was set at $500 cash.
Haskell paid his bail and is due in court on Jan. 29.
December 26
The Christmas weed
At about 10:35 a.m., Officer Eric Pichler was headed west on Washington Street in Penacook. According to his report, he saw a silver VW that was heading south on Electric Avenue make a right turn onto Washington Street right in front of him.
“The operator did not pause or stop to see if there was traffic,” Pichler wrote, “and I had to slow down to avoid hitting the car.”
Pichler pulled the car over and talked to the driver, Ryan K. Burke, 20, of Concord, he wrote.
Pichler ran his license and registration and found that they were both suspended because Burke hadn’t paid fines, he wrote.
Burke said that he didn’t know about the suspensions, Pichler wrote, and said he paid all his fines and thought his license had been reinstated. Pichler took him into custody, he wrote.
When emptying Burke’s pockets, Pichler wrote, he found a baggie full of a “green leafy vegetative matter that resembled marijuana.”
“As soon as Burke saw the bag he said he forgot that it was in his pocket,” Pichler wrote. “He laughed and said, ‘Oh, that weed was a Christmas present.’ ”
Burke was taken to the police station and booked and processed, Pichler wrote, and was polite and cooperative throughout the process. There, Pichler discovered that Burke had been convicted of operating after revocation in August in Portsmouth.
Bail was set at $10,000 cash, and Burke was taken to the county jail. He was due in court Dec. 29.
