The WNY Listening Post

Western New York’s Scanner-Fed Tabloid

Williamsville · Woodshire & the 290

Stolen Acura RDX, Loose Magazines In The Street, And A Second Stolen Hyundai — Amherst PD Walks Off A Tangled Sunday Morning

Two stolen vehicles from Buffalo surface in Williamsville within forty minutes; officers decline a high-speed pursuit on the 290 and instead track the Acura to a Power Bank lot.

At 8:29 a.m., an Amherst officer rolled up on what was supposed to be a routine ditched-car check on Woodshire and instantly upgraded it: “Should be a ditched car out front — looks like there's three gun magazines in view, so whoever's running around more likely has a handgun”.

By 8:30 dispatch was directing units to a black SUV that had begun “trying car doors” on the same beat, including 231 Village Green.

Five minutes later, the SUV ran. Officers tried a stop, the driver took off, and command made the right call out loud: “Westbound passage 290 is absolutely fine. We're not pursuing” The vehicle was last reported westbound past 290 at high rate of speed, then southbound on Harlem from Sheridan; spike strips were declined as unworkable.

Back at Woodshire, the picture got stranger. By 8:41 an officer was inventorying the scene: “There's an additional magazine in the street — two in the back, one in the street” The plate hit on a stolen 2017 Hyundai Elantra registered to a Charlotte Avenue address in Buffalo — the second stolen vehicle of the morning to land here.

“I'm going to assume this is an unreported steal” a dispatcher acknowledged a moment later, and Amherst asked Buffalo PD to send a car to the registered Charlotte Avenue house. The original Acura RDX — reported as electric blue — surfaced again at 10:28, “tapping to Edison or Harriet Avenue right at the East Elephant, possibly in a Power Bank building” and stationary. No arrests cleared the air in the available window.

Around the NeighborhoodThe Northtowns, call by call

Amherst · St. Leo’s Church

Unwanted Party At St. Leo’s — “Two Metal Crosses, One Described Looks Like A Dagger”

At 10:18 a.m., Amherst PD was dispatched on an unwanted party at St. Leo’s Church; dispatch identified the subject by name and his Hillcrest residence, then added the detail that made the call: “He’s also reportedly holding two metal crosses — one described looks like a dagger”.

Units were instructed to begin the response; no further escalation was broadcast in the available window. The set-piece is the sort of Sunday-morning church call that warrants the heads-up regardless of how it resolves.

Amherst · Carrabba’s on Niagara Falls Blvd

Carrabba’s Italian Grill Fire Alarm: Women’s-Room Smoke Detector Trips At 1645 Niagara Falls Blvd

Amherst Fire dispatch hit Carrabba’s at 1645 Niagara Falls Blvd at 10:34 a.m. for a fire-alarm activation; the panel reading was “for the women's room smoke detector”. Routine restaurant call, but worth a note on the corridor.

Williamsville · Transit Road

Alarm Verification At Ted’s Jumbo Red Hots, 7018 Transit

At 8:45 a.m., Amherst PD was dispatched to verify an alarm at Ted’s Jumbo Red Hots, 7018 Transit Road. No follow-up traffic confirming entry or cause surfaced on the trunk in the available window — likely an alarm-company false ring, but worth noting for the chain.

Amherst · N. Forest & Creekview

Welfare Check At North Forest & Creekview Court: Suicide Hotline Relays Bridge-Jump Plan

At 12:05 p.m., Amherst PD was dispatched on a welfare check “24 to North Forest, Creekview Court, party called suicide prevention hotlines — the dispatch read he plans to jump off a bridge”. Dispatch had only the partial detail that the subject was “currently in a vehicle with rhinestones — we couldn't elaborate on what that meant” — a fragment the officer audibly declined to interpret. The check is the kind of mental-hygiene call dispatchers route quietly; nothing more on the trunk in the available window.

Amherst · Cranbourne

Domestic Dispute On Cranbourne — Dispatch Flags 17-Year-Old’s Pocketknives, Dad Mad At Mom For Calling

At 12:40 p.m., an Amherst PD call landed on Cranbourne with the standard family-dispute mechanics — “Had a physical altercation; the mom is outside, they are still inside verbally arguing” — and the unusual layer of detail that comes with a known household. Dispatch flagged a use-caution note for the responding car: “The 17-year-old son is known to carry pocketknives and have some in the bedroom; use caution. Also a 19-year-old female in the house”.

By 12:51 p.m., the scene had quieted in a familiar pattern: “Pocketknives in the bedroom, typically located on the bookshelf. The dad is now mad at the mom for calling the police”

Williamsville · 5020 Main

Hyatt Place Welfare Check, Room 409: Mom And Sister Visiting From Texas, Sister Pregnant And Not Eating

At 11:30 a.m., Amherst PD took a welfare check at Hyatt Place, 5020 Main, Room 409. The caller “claims his mom and sister are visiting from Texas; sister’s pregnant, not eating, thinks something’s wrong with her”. The set-up is unusual for a corridor hotel welfare check: an out-of-town caller relaying second-hand concerns from a relative’s room. No further status on the trunk in the available window.

Williamsville · Innkeepers Lane

“Homeless Male In The Lobby Destroying The Property; There’s No Staff Around” — Studio 6 / Innkeepers Lane

At 7:11 a.m., the shift opened with a call from a customer at the Studio 6, 125 Innkeepers Lane: “I’m a homeless person at Studio 6, 125 Innkeepers Lane — a homeless male in the lobby destroying the property; there’s no staff around, called in by a customer”.

Fifteen minutes later, dispatch was still trying to raise property staff: “Looks like this hotel is associated with Motel 6 now — can you try calling the one on Maple to see if they know if there’s someone working here, or someone they can help out with the lack of a room?” The shoulder-of-the-corridor hotels keep this kind of call coming — the AM brief had an unconscious male just outside Room 104 of the Extended Stay at the same address at 1:16 a.m. The same property, the same morning, different problem.

Eggertsville · Endicott Drive

Eggertsville Residential Fire-Alarm Activation, 46 Endicott Drive

Amherst Fire dispatched on a residential party-line activation at 46 Endicott Drive at 7:25 a.m., between West Olney Drive and Hunter. Routine alarm; an issue with the alarm panel was diagnosed later in the morning (“the alarm company reset the alarm while we were on location before we were investigating; that's a malfunction with the panel”).

Amherst · Dalewood

Suspicious-Persons Reroute To 147 Dalewood — Male On The Roof Trying To Get Through A Window

At 2:55 p.m., an Amherst car got rerouted to 147 Dalewood for suspicious persons. The dispatch read was a sentence you don’t hear often: “Supposed to be a male on the roof trying to get through a window” A second car was sent for cover on Dalewood. The window for follow-up traffic closed before resolution.


Overheard: The WiresCops, cabbies, custodians, dispatchers — off-script

Beats By Nickname

Amherst Officer Logs On From The Most Honest Beat Description Of The Week: “Running Radar In Front Of Weasel’s House”

At 10:18 a.m., an Amherst officer signing on for the shift offered a single explanatory line about where to find him: “Running radar in front of Weasel’s house” Whether Weasel is a person, a place, or the speed-trap industry’s most decorated patron is, perhaps wisely, not on the broadcast.

Front-Yard Theatre

Welfare Check At 285 Pappertree: Female In A Wheelchair, Out Front, Screaming Obscenities

At 11:06 a.m., Amherst PD took a welfare check at 285 Pappertree. Dispatch’s one-sentence summary covered both the safety question and the spectacle: “Female in a wheelchair out front screaming obscenities” No specific complaint was named on the broadcast; the air of the call was “is she okay” bleeding seamlessly into “is everyone within earshot okay.”

Long-Distance Diagnosis

Caller Asks Williamsville PD To Check On His Mom And Pregnant Sister, Visiting From Texas, In Room 409 At The Hyatt

At 11:30 a.m., a welfare check at Hyatt Place, 5020 Main, Room 409 arrived with the most distant complaint of the morning: a relative called from out of state on the suspicion that “his mom and sister are visiting from Texas, sister’s pregnant, not eating, thinks something’s wrong with her”. The corridor hotels have seen everything; long-distance prenatal triage by police welfare check is somehow a new entry.

Houseguest Audit

412 Fruitwood, Between Fifth And Bryan: Complainant Identified On Dispatch As Zonko, 70, Arrived In A BMW, Refusing To Leave

At 2:09 p.m., Amherst PD took a call at 412 Fruitwood for a houseguest situation rendered in the kind of detail dispatchers don’t often get to keep: “412 Fruitwood, between Fifth and Bryan — complainant Zonko, who’s 70, arrived in a BMW, refusing to leave” A warning was sent out on chat; the BMW, presumably, remained.

Leashlessly Yours

Dispatcher Relays Pedestrian’s Polite Complaint: He Can’t Walk By Your House Because Of The Two Dogs Off The Leash

At 11:02 a.m., an Amherst dispatcher relayed an animal-complaint with the careful neutrality of someone reading aloud a polite Yelp review: “To the party, Olo Post and Kinderhook says he can’t walk by your house because there’s two dogs off the leash” The phrasing alone — not a 911 emergency, not an arrest, just a quiet narration of a sidewalk standoff — deserves the byline.

Forensic Sparkle

“Currently In A Vehicle With Rhinestones. I Couldn’t Elaborate On What That Meant.”

At 12:05 p.m., while routing a welfare check off a suicide-hotline tip, an Amherst dispatcher hit the moment every dispatcher knows: the description that contains a real detail no one quite knows what to do with. “Currently in a vehicle with rhinestones. I couldn’t elaborate on what that meant” A rare on-air admission that the caller’s metaphor escaped the room.


Regional BlotterBeyond the Northtowns — WNY at large

Buffalo · Wilson & Peckham

RESOLVED

Working Fire In Buffalo: Heavy First-Alarm Response To 71 Wilson, Power Line Down, Two Cars Severely Damaged

BFD ran the morning’s biggest job on the East Side — engines 3, 22, 32, 20, 9, and 11 plus Ladders 5 and 15 and a fast Truck 2. The roof was “falling in on itself” by 8:00.

At 7:32 a.m., Buffalo Fire dispatched a heavy first-alarm to a fire in the vicinity of Wilson and Peckham: “Engine 3, Engine 32, Engine 22, Ladder 5, Ladder 15, Ladder 2 is FAST; F20, F9, B41, F40, and F11 — all companies going to Wilson and Peckham; go to Channel 2”.

By 8:00 a.m., the fire ground was active in earnest: “Ladder 5 bucket. The roof’s falling in on itself now”. Fifteen minutes later the third side had a charged-then-broken power line and command was treating one block at “5” with National Grid en route: “Yeah, that power line on the four-side, it broke about halfway, so it’s charged from the pole to about the… anything past that is dead”.

By 8:45 a.m., Command was beginning its damage estimate: 71 Wilson, “$40,000 damage to one car, $10,000 to another”. Crews worked hot spots through 9:30 with a saw for overhaul. No civilian transports were broadcast.

Other Calls of Note

[All day]Other Calls Of Note 7:50 a.m. · Niagara County FD dispatch · 50-year-old female with a broken leg, between Amelia Street and State Road; LST TAC1 assigned.

Editor’s Note

A choppy afternoon for the home zone — cool front, showers and storms, and an Amherst PD shift that absorbed two stolen vehicles, three sets of gun magazines on a Woodshire lawn, and an “unwanted party” at St. Leo’s church carrying two metal crosses, one “looks like a dagger.” Buffalo Fire ran a heavy working fire at Wilson and Peckham from 7:32 a.m. — roof down by eight, power line broken on the four-side, two cars torched — while regional dispatch dealt with a head-injury accident at Carver’s Pier and a three-gallon paint spill across Southwestern Blvd. Character came from the corridor: rhinestones, weasels, and a houseguest named Zonko who arrived in a BMW and refused to leave.

Daily Gem

Currently in a vehicle with rhinestones. I couldn't elaborate on what that meant”

— Amherst PD dispatch, 12:05, welfare check on N. Forest at Creekview

By the Numbers

Segments
1,043
Active systems
24
Busiest hour
08:00–09:00 (Wilson Street working fire + Amherst stolen-vehicle workup)
Regional Breaking
0
Updates
0
By Agency (top 5)
BucketSegs
Police410
Fire / EMS305
Rail / maritime115
Airport / aviation65
Hotel / shuttle / taxi35
By Area (top 5)
BucketSegs
Williamsville & Amherst365
Niagara County144
Buffalo (city)100
Other Erie County75
Cheektowaga / Lancaster / Depew40

Agency & area buckets are estimated from channel attribution; segment-by-segment audit not performed.

The WNY Listening Post · Sunday, June 14, 2026 · P.M. Edition · Vol. I, No. 36
Compiled from public radio scanner traffic via the WNY Listening Post automated pipeline. Transcriptions are AI-generated and may contain errors; verify names and details before action.