LI CRIME BRIEFS

HAUPPAUGE/Cops: 'Grenade' in house was a fake

Emergency service officers and fire rescue personnel performed a controlled detonation of a hand grenade that had been found inside a Hauppauge home, police said.

But, it turned out, the device wasn't a real grenade, Suffolk County police said. It was a decorative item.

The incident began with a 911 call placed about 10 p.m. Monday reporting an explosive device, believed to be a grenade, inside a home on Wheeler Road.

Emergency service personnel, as well as firefighters, went to the scene and closed off northbound and southbound Wheeler Road at Kings Highway, police said.

The emergency service officers removed the device from the home -- and tried to perform what police called a controlled explosion. But it did not explode.

It was not immediately clear who reported the device.

Officials said it was decorative and say they the item may have been used as a paperweight.

-- John Valenti

N. MASSAPEQUA/DWI arrest after motorist speeds by trooper

An Amityville man was drunk and driving with a suspended license when his speeding car passed a trooper on the Southern State Parkway in North Massapequa, State Police said.

Willie Davis, 49, faces felony charges of driving while intoxicated and unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, plus traffic violations, police said.

His arraignment information was not immediately available.

Police said his DWI charge is a felony because he had a previous drunken-driving conviction within the past 10 years.

Davis was driving a black Chevrolet Malibu eastbound on the parkway near the Bethpage State Parkway at 11:40 p.m. Monday when he passed a patrol car "at a high rate of speed," according to a news release.

Troopers pulled over Davis' car and said they "detected a strong odor of alcoholic beverage."

Davis failed sobriety tests and was arrested, police said, and they found that his license had been revoked.

-- Gary Dymski