Police arrest Mastic Beach man three times in three days

A Mastic Beach man was arrested three times in three days as part of what police said was a string of larcenies committed at stores along Old Country Road and at the Tanger Outlets this month. 

At 8 a.m. on Nov. 6, a man identified by police as Raymond Soutar, 56, of Mastic Beach allegedly stole two electric scooters from Walmart.

Then, on the morning of Nov. 11, Mr. Soutar stole “various home heating items” from Lowe’s, according to a Riverhead police press release.

Mr. Soutar was apprehended by police investigating those two petit larcenies at about 8 a.m. on the morning of Nov. 14. He was charged and released on a desk appearance ticket with a future court date. 

By 3 p.m. that day, Mr. Soutar was back in handcuffs, for allegedly stealing Ring camera products from Best Buy. At this point, Mr. Soutar was charged with three petit larcenies, since the stolen items were valued at less than $1,000. But shortly after 6 p.m. that evening, Mr. Soutar is alleged to have stolen more than $1,000 worth of merchandise from the Polo Ralph Lauren store at Tanger Outlets on West Main Street. 

Two days later, on Nov. 16, Mr. Soutar was arrested for the third time, and was charged with grand larceny. He was arraigned in Riverhead justice court and again released without bail pending a future court appearance. 

It was unclear whether Mr. Soutar has retained an attorney, and efforts to reach him directly were unsuccessful.

Riverhead Police Chief David Hegermiller said in an interview that police are seeing more and more incidents in which a suspect is released with an appearance ticket for a future court date, only to swiftly reoffend. 

Asked whether Mr. Soutar’s multiple, successive arrests were an unusual occurrence, Chief Hegermiller said that “maybe in the past that would have been unusual, but not as of late.”

Echoing the sentiments of many in law enforcement, Chief Hegermiller said that a state bail reform initiative that took effect in January 2020 eliminating cash bail for most misdemeanor and nonviolent felony charges has made policing more difficult and, at times, more frustrating. 

“We’re doing the best we can,” Chief Hegermiller said in reference to dealing with bail reform. “We’re just following the rules like we always do. 

“Hopefully, at some point, someone realizes that we can’t let this happen, and there’s hopefully some change down the road in bail reform.”

In March — shortly after an armed carjacking took place at Tanger Outlets — the Riverhead News-Review sought a year’s worth of records of 911 calls emanating from the mall to try to quantify the amount of shoplifting being reported there.

The records showed Riverhead police had logged more than 200 reports of shoplifting at Tanger between March 2022 and March 2023.

Retail theft experts said at the time that sustained and extensive retail theft is not unique to the Riverhead area, but part of a nationwide trend in organized retail crime. Various studies estimate that annual losses to major U.S. retailers from this type of crime range from $80 billion to more than $100 billion.

Tanger’s Polo Ralph Lauren Factory Store logged the most 911 calls for shoplifting — 39 between March 2022 and March 2023. 

An Albany Times-Union analysis of state data for the first full year that bail reform was in effect in New York found that 98,145 suspects were released after being charged with crimes for which judges previously could have imposed bail or held them in custody. The 2022 report said a review of the data found that nearly one-third of those released were rearrested while the initial cases were still pending. A majority of those cases were for misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies, the newspaper reported.