Two more “stranger” incidents have been reported in the Merrick-Bellmore area, one involving members of the Calhoun High School boys’ track team on Thursday afternoon and another involving teenagers walking home from school on Friday afternoon. more

After a Massapequa Park man was arrested and charged with grabbing the pocketbook of an elderly shopper at a North Bellmore grocery store, he broke free from law enforcement officials before he was detained last weekend, police said. Michael Hammond, 24, was arrested just before 3 p.m. on Sunday, May 5, at a North Bellmore Stop & Shop. Police allege that this was the fourth time Hammond took the pocketbooks of local shoppers. more

Surrounded by police and school officials, Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano vowed during a news conference at Chatterton Elementary School in Merrick on Monday to catch the man or men who have approached and frightened Bellmore-Merrick children in recent weeks. In at least once incident, a middle school student reported that a man had attempted to grab him. more

The Nassau County Police Department’s 1st Precinct is investigating multiple recent incidents in which young adolescents were approached in the Merrick-Bellmore area by a man or men in recent weeks. more

The Nassau County Police Department’s September 2012 decision to merge the 4th and 5th Precincts as a way to help save an estimated $20 million is facing renewed criticism from the police officers’ union, with reports indicating an increase in some major crimes this year compared with the same period in 2012, before the merger. more

Maureen Beccaris has been an officer in the Nassau County Police Department’s 1st Precinct for 26 years, but for the last six months, she said, she came to work every day not knowing where she would be the next week. She explained that her office’s supplies and papers were still in boxes, waiting to be moved to Seaford when the scheduled merger of the 1st and 7th precincts took place.But when Beccaris returned to work after a weekend of visiting colleges with her daughter two weeks ago, her coworkers greeted her with news that the 1st Precinct in Baldwin would remain open. After months of uncertainty, she said, the mood in the station house shifted to a sense of relief. more

Maureen Beccaris has been an officer in the Nassau County Police Department’s 1st Precinct for 26 years, but for the past six months, she said, she came to work every day not knowing where she would be the next week. She explained that her office’s supplies and papers were still in boxes, waiting to be moved to Seaford when the scheduled merger of the 1st and 7th precincts took place. more

A New York State Supreme Court justice has ordered Nassau County to appoint a seven-member committee to oversee the Nassau County Correctional Center. The ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed in March 2012 by the New York Civil Liberties Union, which said it had received hundreds of complaints from inmates about poor conditions and treatment at the jail. more

Alex Cuozzo, president and coach of the Bellmore Striders running club, bounced between websites as the Boston Marathon progressed on Monday, checking on the club’s three members in the 26.2-mile race. more

A Bellmore man faces drunken-driving charges after he crashed his car into a local home, police said. more