Buffalo · Broadway · Possible Kidnapping

A Woman Reportedly Forced Into a Car off Broadway, and a Suspect Later Taken at the Grand Island Bridge

Buffalo police changed the call to a kidnapping overnight, then learned the woman had already been dropped back home.

At 1:39 AM, Buffalo police on the East District channels broadcast that a call had been changed to a kidnapping at 835 Broadway — a woman reported forced into a vehicle, described as a 2025 Jeep Compass with New York plates, possibly still in the area. Officers ran the plate and pulled camera hits, with dispatch noting the last read was about an hour earlier near Bailey and Broadway before the vehicle dropped off.

As units pressed, an officer cut through the radio with the night's tersest instruction — “Please, get that man”. The thread took a quieter turn minutes later when dispatch clarified “she is back home now. He dropped her off a little bit after taking her”: the man had dropped her off a short time after taking her, and she was safe. Separately, overnight traffic noted a suspect from a Lewiston kidnapping case being picked up by Buffalo units in Lewiston PD custody at the Grand Island South Bridge. The scanner traffic established the report, the vehicle, the custody handoff and the woman's return home; it did not establish charges or further detail before the window closed.

Erie County · I-90 · Road Rage

A Red Silverado Clips Two Semis, Runs a Car off the Thruway, Then Gets Out and Fights

A chain of erratic-driver calls converged near mile marker 372 westbound, with people screaming on the shoulder.

Yesterday at 4:57 PM, a Thruway dispatcher stitched together a run of calls into one ugly picture near mile marker 372 westbound: “this red Chevy Silverado pickup, apparently hit two semi-trucks, then ran a car off the road, now fighting with somebody at this mile marker above, which is 3-7-2”

As a trooper turned around to respond, more calls rolled in — dispatch recast it as “Red pickup versus another pickup versus a larger SUV”, and reported a vehicle at high speed with people “screaming on the side of the road”. Units from the Buffalo zone were pulled toward the scene while the desk worked to get the next closest car moving. The scanner traffic established the multi-vehicle collisions, the fleeing-to-fighting escalation and the multi-unit response; it did not establish injuries or arrests before the thread closed.

Cattaraugus County · Little Valley · Knife Standoff

A Man Reportedly Threatening People With a Knife Barricades Himself at the Shady Rest

Deputies were told they were 20 minutes out as a caller described someone locked in an apartment on Route 417.

Yesterday at about 10:54 PM, Cattaraugus County sheriff's dispatch toned a call to the Shady Rest, 1542 Route 417, where a caller reported a man “threatening people, possibly with a knife” and said he had locked himself in his apartment.

The response carried the strain of a rural county at night: a deputy came back that they were “approximately 20 minutes away”, while the desk worked to pull another unit free from the hospital. Later traffic placed the man outside the property and refined the location to Building 8, Apartment 1. The scanner traffic established the knife threat, the barricade and the distance units had to cover; it did not establish an arrest or any injury before the thread closed.

Chautauqua County · Missing Child Search

A Missing Girl, a Half Day of School, and a Woman Slumped in a Red Van Complicate a Chautauqua Search

Dispatch chased a father's whereabouts across two addresses before learning the daughter was with him all along.

Yesterday afternoon, beginning around 4:19 PM, Chautauqua County dispatch worked a report of a missing child, with units told “It's believed that the father, James Brennan, picked her up for dinner”. Deputies ran down addresses on Sturgis and Maple while, mid-search, dispatch flagged an unsettling complication: “there's a report of a female slumped over in a vehicle, a red van, in the lot at Ballard General”

The two threads never connected. Dispatch noted the father wasn't listed at the address they checked, and a unit out at the Dollar General couldn't find the red van before widening the look to nearby vehicles. By 4:27 PM an officer had reached the father, who said the daughter was with him and that he was en route to make contact. The scanner traffic established the search, the half-day pickup and the resolution with the father; it did not resolve the separate report of the woman in the van before the thread moved on.

Buffalo · Missing Child From School

A 6-Year-Old Doesn't Come Home From School, and an Unreachable Father Turns It Into an Abduction Fear

A child protective caller told Buffalo police the girl's father may have picked her up from school — but he wasn't answering his phone.

Yesterday at about 6:07 PM, Buffalo police dispatch sent a car to Michelle Dunn Grove on a welfare check that quickly took on an edge. A caller from child protective services reported that a 6-year-old girl who normally takes the school bus home had not arrived, and that “it's possible the father got her from school but he's not answering”.

The unanswered phone pushed the call toward a possible-abduction framing on the air even as officers worked to establish whether the child was simply with a parent. The scanner traffic established the missed bus, the unreachable father and the welfare response; it did not establish that the girl had been located before the thread closed. Overnight, the city's missing-person wire stayed busy — a 15-year-old boy reported gone from school later turned up home, and separate alerts went out for vulnerable adults on the East and North sides.

Erie County · I-90 · Call of the Wild

A Wookiee ETA: Thruway Desk Wants Word the Moment Chewbacca Rolls Up

Nicknames travel well on the night shift.

Amid a steady drip of fender-benders and deer strikes, a Thruway dispatcher handed off a routine property-damage job with the night's most galactic instruction: “Let me know when Chewbacca gets out there. They might get there sooner than 5-9” — a colleague apparently better known over the air by a Star Wars handle than a unit number, and possibly the faster arrival to boot.

Erie County · I-90 · Leaf It to the Pros

The Thruway's Leafiest Headache: a Semi Loaded With 29,000 Pounds of Salad

A damaged tractor-trailer near exit 5, and a payload fit for a very large side dish.

Working a banged-up semi near exit 5 that needed a heavy tow, a dispatcher asked the natural follow-up — whether the rig was loaded. The answer came back with a crunch: “He's loaded with 29,000 pounds of salad” The truck's front passenger tire and bumper were the casualties; the greens, presumably, held together.

West Seneca · The Kindest Call

An Officer Offers to Run Home for a Spare Space Heater for a Freezing Man

Not every call on the wire is trouble.

Among a night thick with domestics and welfare checks, a West Seneca officer offered the gentlest fix on the air — the kind that doesn't fit on any call sheet: “I'm going to run home quick. I have an extra space heater if it'll help him get through” It was the sound of a long shift doing something small and decent in the cold.

Tonawanda · 2:46 AM · Vibe Check

The 2:46 AM Vibe Check: 'Chief, How'd You Feel Today?' 'Pretty Chill, Kyle'

The quietest stretch of the overnight finds the Tonawanda desk just checking in.

Deep in the small hours, between unit numbers and plate reads, the Tonawanda night shift paused for the kind of exchange that never makes a report — a mutual temperature-taking at nearly three in the morning: “Chief, how'd you feel today? Pretty chill, Kyle. You too” The whole thing had the easy cadence of two people who've shared a lot of 3 AMs.

Chautauqua County · Burnt Again

Crew Calmly Diagnoses the Great Chautauqua Fire of Yesterday: Burnt Food, Run the Fan

The least dramatic size-up on the wire.

Keyed up to a chief with the practiced boredom of a crew that has done this many times, a Chautauqua firefighter delivered the all-clear before anyone could panic: “No, this is going to be burnt food. We're just going to run this one fan we got for a few minutes and then we'll be clear” Three on scene, one fan running, and dinner — such as it was — already settled.

Tonawanda · Raintree Apartments · Domestic Incident

Woman Reports Boyfriend Punched Her at Raintree Apartments, Fled Before Officers Arrived

Just after 1 AM, Tonawanda police were dispatched to 49 Raintree, Apartment 1, for a domestic incident after a caller reported “her boyfriend punched her”. Officers were told the man — described as 6'3", white, wearing a green sweatshirt and intoxicated — had tried to take the woman's phone and had already left the area before patrol arrived. The woman later told police he had no weapons and declined first aid.

Buffalo · Middale Avenue · Shooting

CPR Underway After Shooting on Buffalo's Middale Avenue Draws Extra Alarm

Yesterday at 6:06 PM, Buffalo Fire Dispatch sent Engine 23 and Ladder 7 to Middale Avenue between Collingwood and Kensington for a person shot, described only as a man in a green jacket and tan pants. Crews on scene with police initially relayed that the wound “reported to be self-inflicted”, but within three minutes dispatch upgraded the call — a "go for F-20" — with CPR already in progress and additional equipment ordered to the address. The response was brieflycomplicated by a CAD system outage, which prompted dispatch to tell all companies to restart their terminals shortly after the call went out. No further update on the victim's condition came over the air.

Lackawanna · Five Star Towing Area · Assault

Passerby Reports Man Dragged From Vehicle and Beaten at Red Light in Lackawanna

Yesterday at 4:45 PM, Lackawanna police responded to a report of an assault after a passerby said she'd seen a man dressed in black “dragging another male out of his vehicle and beat him up at the red light”. The attacker fled in a vehicle back toward the area of Five Star Towing; dispatch broadcast a partial plate beginning with the letters M-B-B, but units searching the area could not locate him. It was not stated on the air whether the victim remained at the scene.

Hamburg · Lakeshore Road · Attempted Burglary

One Burglar Detained, Second Flees to Lake Erie Beach After Lakeshore Road Break-In

Yesterday just before 9 PM, Hamburg police responding to a Lakeshore Road home where a resident's camera had caught two masked men getting inside detained one subject on scene; the man denied anyone had been with him. Officers fanned out to search the area, and just after 9 PM dispatch sent units to the Town Park to walk the beach westbound on the chance the second subject was running along the shoreline. Dispatch also asked the original caller to confirm there had in fact been two people, since the home's camera footage was “glitchy”. No further radio update indicated whether the second man was located.

Delevan · Rusty Nail Tavern · Structure Fire

Mutual-Aid Tankers Converge on Delevan Tavern Fire From Three Counties

Yesterday at 8:32 PM, Springville Fire Control toned out a mutual-aid request to Delevan for a working structure fire at the Rusty Nail Tavern, 51 North Main Street, sending Springville's own engine-tanker company to the scene with a timeout set for 8:32 AM. Within two minutes a second company, heard on the air only as "Colonel 9" and "Colonel 9-1," was also responding, and dispatch began assembling a tanker shuttle that pulled in companies as far away as Silver Creek, in Chautauqua County — reflecting the rural water-supply demands of a working fire in a hamlet without hydrants. By the time crews were converging on scene, the mutual-aid chain for the tavern fire had reached across three counties: Erie, Cattaraugus and Chautauqua.

Jamestown · East 6th Street · Armed Disorderly

Caller Says Man Breaking Into Cars on East 6th Street Armed With Curved Knife

Just after 12:26 AM, Jamestown police were sent to a disorderly complaint at 620 East 6th Street, where a caller said a man was breaking into parked cars armed with “a curved knife or possibly a pitchfork”. Dispatch identified the man on the air as DeMarco Latham and said he had first broken into a basement apartment at the address before retreating to the building's top floor; he was described as shirtless and wearing shorts.

Cattaraugus County · Hinsdale · Self-Harm BOLO

Sheriff's Deputies, State Police Search for Man on E-Bike After Self-Harm Threats Near Hinsdale

Yesterday around 6:19 PM, Cattaraugus County sheriff's dispatch issued a lookout for a man identified as Steven Bailey after he left a residence on South 2nd Street and headed up Union Valley Road on a silver e-bike, reportedly toward a camp, after “threats of self-harm”. Dispatchers asked state troopers checking Hinsdale Road toward Union Valley to watch for him and relayed the alert to Olean police for an attempt to locate; the sheriff's office said Bailey had left the address about five minutes earlier on the silver e-bike.