This Halloween brought neither trick nor treat for two men in Vienna who got served instead with assault charges.

Police officers were called to the Vienna Park apartments in the 200 block of Cedar Lane SE around 9:40 a.m. on Oct. 30 after one resident declined to pick up his dog’s feces and another took umbrage, the Vienna Police Department said in its crime recap for the week of Oct. 28 to Nov. 2.

“The man advised that he and his brother confronted the dog’s owner, resulting in an altercation,” the VPD said. “The dog’s owner advised his two neighbors assaulted him while he was picking up the waste, causing minor injury. Rescue responded to treat the small cut, but the man refused transport to a medical facility.”

Police say the dog owner later got court summonses from the Fairfax County Magistrate’s Office that charged both men — a 41-year-old Vienna resident and a 26-year-old from Harrisionburg — with simple assault, a Class 1 misdemeanor in Virginia that could result in a jail sentence of up to a year or a fine of up to $1,000.

VPD officer Celines Fitchue delivered the summons on Oct. 31. Both men “were released on their signatures,” the recap says.

October also closed on an unpleasant note for a customer of the Popeyes in the Maple Avenue Shopping Center, according to the Vienna police report:

Trespassing and Petit Larceny 23-010041 and 23-010052
Popeyes
325 Maple Avenue, East
October 28 8:19 p.m.

An employee reported a customer was upset with the quality of their meal and threw a stack of disposable cups at them. When the man left the restaurant, he forgot his book bag. The employee requested the man be trespassed from the restaurant. A short time later, the man called the police station, reporting his book bag stolen. The man was advised that he had left the property in the restaurant and could come to the police station to retrieve it. When he recovered his property, he reported that US currency was missing. An officer advised the man he was trespassed from the restaurant and would be arrested if he returned to the premises.

A day later, police helped F45 Fitness Training (322 Maple Avenue West) trespass a patron who was “talking inappropriately to the employees.”

Officers also took a report on Oct. 25 of someone pouring “syrup on the pickleball court” at Glyndon Park (300 Glyndon Street NE) sometime between midnight and 8:30 a.m., according to the recap.

“[The citizen] also advised that on October 11, she observed another liquid that had been poured on the court,” the VPD said.

Photo via Google Maps

(Updated at 10 a.m.) An Arlington man faces criminal charges after Vienna police learned that a vehicle he reported as stolen had, in fact, been involved in a hit-and-run crash.

The Vienna Police Department got a report on July 30 from a supposed resident who said his vehicle had been stolen out of his garage on Battle Street SE sometime between midnight on July 29 and 9 a.m. on July 30.

“A resident left his vehicle unsecured in the garage with the keys inside overnight,” police said in a summary from its recap of the week of Aug. 4. “Due to a storm and power outage, the garage door was unable to close. The following day, the resident discovered the vehicle was stolen.”

The VPD noted at the time that the vehicle was later located in another jurisdiction.

A subsequent investigation, however, linked the vehicle to a crash in Arlington County where the driver fled the scene with two children, according to an update in the VPD’s latest recap, which covers the week of Sept. 8-14.

“Investigation revealed the driver was the owner of the vehicle who made the stolen vehicle report the following morning,” Vienna police said.

According to the Arlington County Police Department, its officers were dispatched to the 1500 block of North Bryan Street around 10:07 p.m. on July 29 for a single-vehicle crash “with unknown conditions.”

“The preliminary investigation indicated the driver of the vehicle struck a stop sign and utility pole at 16th Street N. and N. Bryan Street before exiting the vehicle with the two juvenile occupants and running from the scene prior to police arrival,” an ACPD spokesperson said.

Vienna police arrested the 42-year-old Arlington man on Sept. 7 after Detective Brad Reedy obtained a warrant charging him with making a false report to a law enforcement officer.

The man has also been charged by Arlington police with two counts each of child neglect and hit and run of unattended property.

“He was transported to the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center where the warrants were served on him,” the VPD said.

In a separate, more recent incident, Vienna police responded at 7:14 p.m. last Tuesday (Sept. 12) to an assault in the Cedar Park Shopping Center parking lot, according to the weekly recap.

The officers located two men who advised they were getting into an Uber when three or four men approached the vehicle, pulled them out of the vehicle, and began assaulting them. The two men had visible signs of injury, but refused rescue. They reported they did not know the men who attacked them and advised they did not wish to pursue charges against them. Officers searched the area for the suspects but could not locate them.

The Fairfax County Police Department is hoping to add a detective from the Town of Vienna to its ranks.

Under a reciprocal agreement set to be approved by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors tomorrow (Tuesday), the Vienna detective will specifically help investigate drug and vice crimes as part of the larger department’s Organized Crime and Narcotics division.

“These crimes have a substantial and detrimental effect on the health and welfare of our communities and the cooperative effort between the Town of Vienna Police Department and FCPD would be advantageous in disrupting illicit activities,” county staff said in the board agenda.

According to the staff memo, Vienna had provided a detective who worked full-time in the FCPD’s narcotics division since July 1990. However, the partnership got put on hold in 2021 when the Vienna Police Department encountered “staffing constraints.”

Since then, the Vienna department has managed an about-face on those staffing challenges, reducing its vacancies to just one out of 52 positions, as of May.

With the revived reciprocal agreement, the Vienna Police Department will once again assign a detective to work with the FCPD full-time. County officers in the Organized Crime and Narcotics division will also get the authority to enforce drug and vice laws in the Town of Vienna, including by making arrests.

In addition, the Vienna Police Department will be able to claim a portion of the property seized in cases worked by its detective, according to the staff memo.

Sharing of forfeited assets shall be distributed based on the amount of work performed by each detective on any given case as determined by the Commander of OCN. The minimum amount that the Town of Vienna Police Department will receive shall be 5% of all asset sharing requests processed by the Fairfax County Police Department’s OCN. The maximum amount that the Town of Vienna Police Department will receive shall be no more than 70% of all asset sharing requests processed by the FCPD.

While working with the FCPD, the detective will be required to follow county rules, including the Trust Policy that bars county employees from sharing information about an individual’s citizenship or immigration status with federal immigration authorities unless required by law or court order.

Late night drinks ended in a round of fisticuffs at Vienna’s Pazzo Pomodoro last Wednesday (July 12).

Officers were called to the Italian restaurant at 118 Branch Road SE around 1:30 a.m. after getting a report of a fight, the Vienna Police Department said in a summary of notable incidents from the week of July 7-13.

According to the report, bystanders told police that the conflict began when a man made “comments about a couple” at the restaurant’s bar, which is open until 1 a.m. on Sundays through Thursdays.

“One of the other patrons was offended by the comments and asked the man to stop,” the VPD said. “When the man continued with the comments, a fight ensued between the man, the patron, and the patron’s adult son.”

Other customers and employees were able to break up the fight before the police arrived and advised those involved of the process for pursuing charges, should they opt to go that route, according to the VPD.

In a separate, belatedly documented incident, police went to the 200 block of Harmony Drive SW on June 2 to settle a dispute between a resident and a group of teen boys.

Officers received two calls about the incident: one from the resident and another from a caller who claimed the resident had brandished a handgun.

The resident advised she heard a loud banging at her front door and she observed several teenage boys standing by the curb. The resident yelled at the boys, swearing and using racial slurs. When the boys began cursing back she called the police. The boys advised they left the local pool and were waiting for a ride when an unknown boy ran up to the resident’s door, knocked, and ran away. The resident then began yelling at them and emerged with a gun.

The resident told officers that she was holding her phone to call the police, not a gun — an assertion confirmed by a cell phone video that the boys recorded of the encounter, the VPD said.

Also in the department’s latest round-up, a traffic stop on June 30 led to the driver — a 30-year-old Herndon man — getting charged with carrying a concealed firearm without a permit, and a resident reported on July 13 that her dog got sick from ingesting rat poison while in her backyard.

“It is not known how the poison could have gotten into the resident’s yard,” police said.

At the Westwood Country Club on July 7, a “disgruntled” employee was trespassed after “breaking several plates, shoving the manager, and placing several employees in fear.”

In addition, a resident in the 1100 block of Moorefield Hill Court SW called police on July 10 to report that his dog walker had seen another woman who claimed to be a dog walker enter his home around noon that day:

At 7:30 p.m., a resident reported an incident from earlier in the day when his dog walker observed a woman walk through the carport and into his home. The woman immediately left saying she had the wrong house. The dog walker provided the resident with the woman’s description and the tag number from her vehicle. Officers went to the woman’s home and she advised them that she is a dog walker and accidentally walked into a home thinking it was her client’s address then quickly realized she was at the wrong house.

Photo via Google Maps

Assault charges could be on deck for a Vienna man who allegedly chased and grabbed a boy during a youth baseball game earlier this week.

Vienna police officers were called to 133 Maple Avenue East at 8 p.m. on Wednesday (June 14) after getting a report of a man grabbing a juvenile at Waters Field (300 Cherry Street), according to the police department’s crime round-up for the week of June 9-15.

Identifying himself as being “with” the local Babe Ruth Baseball League, the man told police that the league has faced “an ongoing issue with the games being interrupted by juveniles.”

“The man explained there was a game in progress at Water’s Field when a group of boys ran onto the field and interrupted the game,” the Vienna Police Department said in the report. “He stated that he chased them off the field, grabbing one of them in an attempt to bring him to the police station.”

When contacted by police, the boys said they were at Vienna Inn (120 Maple Avenue East) with their soccer team when they decided to go to Waters Field and “climb the fence onto the ballfield.”

“They advised they did not realize they were interrupting a game until a man began chasing them,” the police recap says. “The father of the juvenile who was grabbed was advised of the incident and will decide if he wishes to pursue assault charges.”

In an unrelated incident, the VPD is investigating a spate of reported vehicle break-ins that occurred at the Westwood Country Club yesterday (Thursday) afternoon:

Grand Larceny 23-005642
Westwood Country Club
800 Maple Avenue, East
June 15 2:49 p.m.
A citizen reported someone entered his unlocked vehicle and stole his Titleist bag which contained clothes, a toiletries bag, and a therapy massage gun.

Grand Larceny 23-005638
Westwood Country Club
800 Maple Avenue, East
June 15 between 2:50 p.m. and 3:00 p.m.
A citizen reported she left her purse in her locked vehicle in the parking lot while dropping her son off at the country club. An unknown person smashed the window and stole her purse which contained U.S. currency, credit cards, gift cards, and other various paperwork and belongings.

Grand Larceny 23-005640
Westwood Country Club
800 Maple Avenue, East
June 15 3:49 p.m.
An employee reported someone smashed the driver’s side window of his vehicle and stole his wallet containing various identification, credit, and debit cards.

Vienna police are searching for a person who robbed a postal worker while armed with a knife and pepper spray on Friday (June 2).

Officers responded around 11:50 a.m. to a U.S. Postal Service employee’s report that they had been robbed in the 500 block of Church Street NE, the Town of Vienna Police Department said in a news release that afternoon.

“The employee stated the suspect displayed a knife and demanded the employee’s keys,” the VPD said. “The employee complied and gave up their United States Postal Service mailbox key. The suspect then proceeded to pepper spray the employee before fleeing the scene on foot.”

The worker was taken to the hospital with injuries not considered life-threatening.

The department is seeking assistance from the public in the case, asking for potential eyewitnesses or video footage of the encounter.

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the law enforcement arm of the USPS, is collaborating with Vienna police on the investigation.

The VPD asks anyone with possible information to contact its public information officer, Juan Vazquez, at 703-255-6366.

Additional details about the robbery, including any identifying information for the suspect, weren’t immediately available.

The Town of Vienna Police Department will once again usher in summer with a hardline approach to stop sign violations.

The department launched a campaign today (Thursday) that will see officers step up their enforcement of traffic safety laws, especially those governing stop signs, after seeing “a noticeable increase in such violations.”

“For the entire month of June, we have taken the initiative to address the repeated violations that have been reported by both residents and Town of Vienna staff members,” VPD Public Information Officer Juan Vasquez said.

Like in a similar campaign organized last June, the crackdown will involve a particular focus on drivers who roll through or ignore stop signs:

Officers will be actively present to issue tickets and remind drivers about the importance of coming to a complete stop when approaching a stop sign. Whether facing a solid or flashing red light, drivers must stop before entering the crosswalk, intersection, or stop line. It’s worth noting that, under certain circumstances, a stop sign violation can be cited as reckless driving.

Motorists who receive a ticket for a stop sign or red light violation will face a fine and three demerit points on their driving record. The Vienna Police Department emphasizes the need for defensive driving, courteous behavior, and strict adherence to all traffic laws to ensure safe arrival at destinations.

Virginia law defines reckless driving as anyone who drives a vehicle “in a manner so as to endanger the life, limb, or property of any person,” which can include a failure to yield the right-of-way.

Reckless driving is classified as a Class 1 misdemeanor, which carries maximum punishments of one year in jail and a $2,500 fine. It can be elevated to a Class 6 felony if the driver doesn’t have a valid license and the incident resulted in another person’s death.

(Updated at 4:25 p.m.) A rock fight disrupted a warm Saturday afternoon for two Vienna households last week, though who exactly was throwing the rocks is a matter of some dispute.

A resident in the 100 block of Patrick Street SE reported to police on May 20 that, around 5 p.m., a man threw rocks at his juvenile son, who was playing outside, according to the Vienna Police Department’s weekly recap for May 19-25.

“An officer spoke to the man who advised he was sitting on his balcony when a group of juveniles began throwing rocks at him, cursing, and calling him racial slurs,” the VPD said in its report.

The man denied throwing any rocks, telling the officer that “he took the rocks and placed them on a toy in front of the apartment the juveniles ran to.”

No injuries were reported, but the police explained the warrant process to both parties in case they decide to pursue charges.

In a separate incident, police arrested a 21-year-old man from Woodbridge who backed into an officer’s cruiser when he was pulled over for reckless driving at the intersection of Maple Avenue and East Street SE on May 21.

According to the recap, the officer initiated the traffic stop at 2:52 a.m. The driver pulled over to the side of the road and hit the police cruiser when he started to back up.

“Upon the officer’s interaction with the man, he detected signs of impairment,” police said. “The driver failed to complete a series of field sobriety tests and was placed under arrest.”

The man was taken to the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center and charged with driving while intoxicated.

Other “highlights” from the past week include a report of Cedar Lane School student harassing a classmate and hitting a school bus driver, along with an apparent road rage incident:

Assault 23-004593
Cedar Lane School
101 Cedar Lane, SW
May 23 7:45 a.m.

On May 24, the school administration reported a juvenile assaulted their school bus driver on May 23. The juvenile began harassing another student and, when the bus driver tried to intercede, the juvenile began striking him.

Arrest – Destruction of Property 23-004600
Lawyers Road and Malcolm Road, NW
May 24 3:10 p.m.

A citizen was traveling northbound on Lawyers Road when he observed another vehicle driving erratically. When the citizen honked his horn at the other driver, the man cut his vehicle off. As they reached the stop sign at Lawyers and Malcolm, the other driver got out of his vehicle with a baseball bat and proceeded to hit the citizen’s side-view mirror, breaking it off. The man then fled the area.

Police identified the driver as a 23-year-old man and served a summons charging him with property destruction at his home on Laurel Ridge Road.

A dog attacked a cat and a rabid raccoon in Vienna earlier this month, an encounter that left the raccoon dead, police say.

The dog got loose in the 700 block of MacArthur Avenue NE and attacked the two other animals on May 12, according to the Vienna Police Department’s recap for the week of May 12-18.

The incident was reported on May 15 by a neighbor of the dog’s owner. The neighbor also told police that his own dog was bitten while he and the owner were both walking their pets at noon on May 8. The bite left “a puncture wound.”

“The Animal Control Officer in Fairfax County investigated these incidents and placed the dog under a 10-day quarantine,” the VPD said. “ACO Barker had a conversation with the dog’s owner, emphasizing the importance of ensuring the dog does not pose a threat to other people or animals in the future.”

The Fairfax County Health Department reported to police on May 16 that the slain raccoon had been tested for rabies and was confirmed to be positive.

“The owner of the dog was promptly notified, and the quarantine period was extended to the required 45 days,” Vienna police said, noting that both that dog and the dog of the resident who reported the incidents were up-to-date on their vaccinations.

About half of the 40 to 60 rabies cases recorded in Fairfax County each year involve raccoons, the county’s rabies program manager previously told FFXnow. The virus typically spreads through a bite or scratch and nearly always proves fatal.

Other notable incidents in last week’s crime round-up include three domestic assaults and a May 12 crash at the intersection of Locust Street and Branch Road where “the driver lost control, went over the curb, and struck a utility pole.”

The driver, a 69-year-old man from Vienna, was charged with driving while intoxicated.

Alcohol also figured into a trespassing incident at Yeonas Park around 3:30 p.m. on May 13:

Officers responded to the report of a man who was refusing to leave the ballpark. The Vienna Little League President advised he saw the man drinking alcohol and when he requested he leave the park, the man threatened him. The man was trespassed from the park by the Little League President and he left the area.

In addition, officers responded to three times to people playing pickleball at Glyndon Park outside of the town’s approved hours. The complaints came in at 7:36 p.m. and 9:07 p.m. on Wednesday (May 17), and at 9:02 p.m. on Thursday (May 18).

Separately, the VPD announced last week that a man had been arrested on Thursday for allegedly sexually assaulting a girl at a Vienna park.

(Updated at 1:55 p.m.) A Vienna man has been arrested for allegedly raping a girl at a local park.

The suspect, Celvin Aragon Flores, met the victim online through a social media app and then “engaged in a sexual encounter with her at a park in Vienna,” the Town of Vienna Police Department says.

The sexual assault was reported to the VPD on Monday (May 15), though the department’s weekly recap suggests the assault occurred around 8 a.m. on April 16.

“Detectives from the Criminal Investigations Section, dedicated to this case, conducted interviews with the victim and witnesses, coordinated a forensic rape examination, and obtained search warrants,” police said.

Arrested yesterday (Thursday), Flores has been charged with sodomy, rape, aggravated sexual battery and animate object penetration. Additional charges are expected “as the case progresses,” according to the police department.

The VPD said it has notified victim services personnel and Child Protective Services, which “will provide the necessary assistance and ongoing support for the victim.”

When asked about the age of the victim, who’s identified only as a juvenile, and the name of the park, police said they were unable to disclose that information.

“Due to this case being an active investigation, we must abide by certain protocols to ensure the integrity of the case,” VPD public information officer Juan Vazquez said.