Middletown Arrests: Dec. 23-30

Middletown Police report the following incidents:

Dec. 30

SECOND-DEGREE THREATENING, FIRST-DEGREE HARASSMENT — At 5:46 p.m., a woman walked into police headquarters saying her boyfriend, Marcos Parks, 34, of Hillside Avenue, was threatening her with 91 text messages, according to the report. Police say some of the messages said, "I'll stab u to death in public," "I'm gonna squeeze the life out of u with my bare [expletive] hands," "I'll light u on fire and watch u run around, everything u love will die." Parks later told police he did send the texts to get a response out of the victim.

Dec. 29

SECOND-DEGREE CUSTODIAL INTERFERENCE — At 8:30 p.m., Donald L. Paden, 35, of Newent Road, Lisbon, was picked up on an outstanding warrant at Bretton Road and Bretton Place.

Dec. 24

SIXTH-DEGREE LARCENY — At 1:50 p.m., Janice Gowell, 34, of Silver Street was at Stop & Shop on East Main Street and a loss prevention officer saw her shopping with her neighbor's child then concealing power toothbrushes, paper towels and 12 packs of soda in her carriage and leaving the store without paying, according to the report. In all $131.20 worth of goods were stolen, according to police.

Dec. 23

SUSPENDED LICENSE — Austin A. Shimchick, 19, of Prospect Street, Portland, was driving on South Main Street without a front license place, according to the report, and the officer smelled marijuana inside his car. He was found with a marijuana pipe with burnt residue and a pill bottle with 11.5 grams of marijuana inside.

SIXTH-DEGREE LARCENY — At 1:45 p.m., police were called about Joseph Opalski, 68, of Orange Road, who was at Connecticut Beverage Mart on Washington Street and detained by the manager who said he'd dealt with him in the past about shoplifting incidents but hadn't called police, according to the report. Police say Opalski came inside with two plastic garbage bags full of empty cans to return for bottle deposit, placed the empty bags in his shopping cart and filled it with three wine bottles. He bought some items at the register, the report says, but left without paying for the concealed wine — three bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon worth $88.97 in total. Opalski admitted to stealing the wine, police say, and couldn't explain why he did since he had enough money and had in fact done so one time prior.

The following police reports come from the Middletown Police public information officer. Individuals named here reflect charges filed, never a conviction.