Police: Abandoned Pizza Box Leads Officers to Abandoned Assault Victim

After finding an abandoned pizza box on top of a car, Vernon officers found an abandoned assault victim on the floor of a local apartment on Thursday, police said. 

As a result, a Vernon man was charged with third-degree assault, interfering and second-degree breach of peace after what is being classified as a domestic incident, police said. 

At 6:33 p.m. on Thursday, police were called to the Hillside Terrace apartment complex at 130 Vernon Ave., a department spokesman said. When they arrived, officers noticed an unattended car parked with a pizza box sitting on its roof, a VPD spokesman said. 

Sam Rocco Masculli, a 24-year-old resident of the complex, approached officers and asked them why they were looking at his car. Police inquired about an alleged domestic incident and Masculli then allegedly told police it might have been a reference to his girlfriend, who was drunk but now inside an apartment, a VPD spokesman said.

Masculli then became uncooperative and began to walk away from police officers, a VPD spokesman said. Meanwhile, residents told officers they saw a man restraining a woman a short time earlier, a VPD spokesman said. 

Police then entered his apartment and found a woman with head injuries, a VPD spokesman said. They did not classify them as serious, but Masculli was arrested, a VPD spokesman said.