Night watches can be weird

By Erikah Haavie
Poughkeepsie Journal

BEACON -- It was a rainy February morning, almost 4 a.m., when Beacon police officer Paul Schettino was on a routine check for speeders.

The radar registered a speeding car, and Schettino pulled it over.

The man driving had no seatbelt, no driver's license and his speech was impaired. Schettino thought the man might be intoxicated, so he asked him to step out of the car.

Schettino then saw what appeared to be yellow plastic in the man's mouth. It turned out to be 35 hits of crack, totaling about the size of a golf ball, and he was trying to swallow them.

The man, resisting arrest, started to choke. Schettino was able to dislodge the mass before he and his partner made the arrest.

Shift sometimes unusual

Working rotating shifts for 22 years in the City of Beacon, Lt. Paul Schettino has just about seen it all. But some of his most unusual experiences have happened on the ''night tour,'' also known as the graveyard shift.

The night block, running from midnight to 8 a.m., is something officers either love or hate, Chief Richard Sassi said.

It is sometimes coveted because there are less bosses around and less errands to do than during the daytime shift. The down side is, it messes with your biological clock. ''It can wear and tear on you,'' Sassi said.

The night shift typically begins by coming in shortly before midnight to check reports and e-mails. Then depending on their assignments, officers perform patrols and answer calls.

Activity tends to come in waves. On one recent night, the department made four arrests; other nights, there's no activity whatsoever.

It's the busiest from midnight to 3 a.m. and then there's usually a lull until 5:30 a.m. or 6 a.m. as people begin getting up and heading to work, Sassi said.

During downtimes, officers might stroll Main Street or check businesses as a type of burglary watch.

The shroud of night makes it a major time for larcenies and burglaries in the city, Sassi said.

One of Sassi's most memorable graveyard shifts was in the mid-1980s when he nabbed a man known as the ''pocketbook burglar.''

The ''pocketbook burglar'' looked for open doors. He preyed on people sleeping on their porches or napping on their couches. His mission was simple -- grab a pocketbook and go. The burglar was wanted in connection with more than 40 unsolved cases in the city.

Possible burglary called in

Sassi was working in the canine unit then. That night he was at the train station when he got a call about a possible burglary on Hudson Avenue.

A lady upstairs in her home heard the chimes on her patio door downstairs ring. The burglar had come in and snatched several bags sitting on the woman's dining room table and left.

Sassi arrived at the scene, turned off the lights on his car and waited. ''He just ran right out in front of me,'' he said.

The man was wearing shorts and had a shirt wrapped around his waist. He was cradling two or three bags in his arms, which unbeknownst to him, contained only the woman's work papers.

''We were hunting this guy for months,'' he said.

For Sassi, the end of the search was just a matter of being at the right place at the right time.