East Meadow chiropractor honored for civic duty

If you see something, say something. Dr. Alan Alterman heard the phrase constantly — on television, on the radio, but mostly from Legislator Norma Gonsalves whenever he saw her at community meetings and events. 

He recalled being told: “if you see something going on, don’t stand back and be passive about it. Be involved.”

Alterman decided not once, but twice to follow what proved to be smart words of advice. For his swift actions, which resulted in arrests of criminals, Gonsalves presented Alterman with a citation at the Jan. 26 meeting of the Council of East Meadow Community Organizations.

Early one summer morning at about 2 a.m., Alterman was awakened to the sound of loud voices outside his home on East Meadow Avenue. Alterman looked out his front window to see two men vandalizing a fence of a neighboring property. Then, one of them, he said, took a tree support pole and used it to smash the window of a business. 

Alterman immediately called 911 to report the crime, and provided the operator with descriptions of the vandals. Within minutes of the call, the suspects were arrested at a nearby parking lot. The police then asked Alterman to enter the police car to identify the suspects.

Almost a month later, Alterman was awakened again in the middle of the night. “I’m a light sleeper,” he said. But this time, it sounded like a car crash. As he surveyed the scene on East Meadow Avenue on his front porch, he saw that a Mercedes had crashed into two parked cars across the street. He saw a man in a white shirt and white pants. After taking a good look at him, Alterman’s attention diverted to the Mercedes, where he heard moaning sounds, as if someone in the car was hurt. 

Alterman rushed into the house to call for an ambulance. When he went back outside, the Mercedes was gone. He called the police back, and gave a description of the man he saw. Again, within minutes, police found the man, who appeared to be the driver of the Mercedes, at a parking lot on Front Street.