Baiting Hollow residents were surprised to find an unoccupied roll-off truck on the beach at Edwards Avenue Sunday morning.
The heavy-duty truck had been driven off the ramp and apparently became stuck in the sand on Saturday night, Riverhead Police Chief David Hegermiller said today.
The incident was reported to Riverhead Police Sunday morning.
The four-axle truck was towing an SUV on a flatbed trailer when it was driven onto the beach, according to police.
The driver of the truck, identified by Riverhead Police as Joseph Tuscano, 43, of Hauppauge, removed the SUV and drove off, Hegermiller said.
“He headed east and was stopped by Southold Police, who had him transported to Eastern Long Island Hospital in Greenport for treatment of a head injury,” Hegermiller said. It was not clear why police stopped the SUV or how and when Tuscano was injured.
Tuscano was later transferred to Stony Brook University Hospital, Hegermiller said.
The truck is owned by Islandwide Industries in Bohemia. Tuscano is listed as CEO of the company in New York State business records. The truck was not reported stolen and the incident was determined to be non-criminal in nature, the chief said.
Tuscano was issued a summons for driving on the beach, Hegermiller said.
“We don’t know why he drove onto the beach,” he said. “He could have been lost and looking to turn around,” he said, “but we don’t know.”
The truck was towed off the beach by Jet Towing.
No one answered the phone number listed for Islandwide Industrial Services Monday and the website domain advertised on its Facebook page, islandwideny.com was unreachable.
An alternate website listed on the company’s Facebook page, gotdumpsters.com redirected to a funeral director’s website. A phone number listed on that website was answered by a man who said he runs a limousine service and said he knew nothing abut the funeral director or Islandwide Industrial Services. Donny Caratozzollo of Caratozzollo Funeral Home said he doesn’t know Tuscano and doesn’t know why the gotdumpsters.com domain name listed on Islandwide Industrial Service’s Facebook page would redirect to his funeral home website.
Correction: This story originally misidentified the type of truck abandoned on the beach as a tractor-trailer.
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