Crime & Safety
Officer Tracks Fluid to Locate Driver After Cemetery Crash
An excerpt from the WPD police log. The following arrest information was supplied by the Woburn Police Department. An arrest does not indicate a conviction.
Featured Incident
On Sunday, Oct. 20, police were made aware of a vehicle leaving the scene of an accident and causing property damage the previous night at Woodbrook Cemetery.
The officer went to the crash scene to observe the damage and attempt to locate any possible information on the vehicle that left the scene.
While on scene, the officer noted small pieces of the vehicle and noticed that when the vehicle left the area it was leaking fluid, possibly transmission fluid or oil.
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Police followed the trail of fluid, which was at times hard to locate. The officer followed the trail as it went down Salem Street, onto Bow Street, and towards Montvale Ave. At that point the trail became very hard to follow.
Soon after, however, the officer was able to locate the trail again and follow it to the driveway of a home on Dix Road. In the driveway was a van with front-end damage and a pool of fluid underneath the vehicle. Some drying solution was underneath the car in an effort to contain the fluid, according to the officer’s report.
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The officer asked a woman who had just pulled into the driveway who owned the van, and she said her father. The man walked towards police and the officer asked him, “What’s up?” to which the man immediately responded, “I fell asleep.”
When asked what he meant by that, the man told police that he fell asleep and hit the fence while driving on Salem Street.
According to the man, he was at Scoreboard’s Bar and Grill earlier in the night and decided he wanted something to eat at Bickford’s. As he was traveling east on Salem Street, he believes he fell asleep, causing him to travel across the road and into the fence.
The man said he panicked and left the area before driving home. When the officer asked if he planned to notify anyone or just hope it goes away, the man told police that he was hoping it went away, according to the report.
Police took the man’s information and it was submitted to another officer for follow up. Photographs were taken at the scene of the damaged vehicle.
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