Cops: Man caught cutting parkway light pole

A Hempstead man was arrested after State Police said he was caught cutting down a light pole along the Meadowbrook Parkway late Sunday afternoon in Freeport.

Police said that William Richardson told the responding troopers he was planning on selling the pole for scrap.

The incident occurred on the southbound Meadowbrook near the Sunrise Highway exit at 5:34 p.m., police said.

It was then that troopers, responding to the call of a man loading a light pole into a van, saw Richardson, 45, next to a brown Ford Aerostar van cutting the light pole with a saw.

Richardson was charged with second-degree criminal mischief and fourth-degree grand larceny. He face arraignment Monday in First District Court, Hempstead.