Man takes casual dress too far at Harbor View
By Janet Hefler - July 5, 2007
Perhaps Mikhail Novoselov, age 42, of Woodbury, Conn., mistook the Coach House Restaurant at Edgartown's Harbor View Hotel for a BYOL (bring your own lobster) venue. Or perhaps it was the effects of Saturday night's full moon. Whatever it was, it led to Mr. Novoselov's misunderstanding of the Harbor View dress code, which is "Vineyard casual."
On June 1, Mr. Novoselov, who was intoxicated, police report, strode into the lobby of the Harbor View Hotel's Coach House, clad only in a pair of white Speedo-style briefs, flip-flops, and a floppy beach hat, clutching half of a cooked lobster with claws still banded, in one hand.
Bob Berdine and his fiancé Carolyn O'Leary, who were visiting from Buffalo, N.Y., were looking around the hotel lobby when Mr. Novoselov arrived. "I'm thinking, that's an odd get-up," Mr. Berdine laughed.
Several shocked patrons who were waiting in line for seating in the Coach House restaurant watched as Mr. Novoselov looked around the lobby a couple of times and then entered the Coach House restaurant ahead of them. "Only on the Vineyard..." one of them muttered.
Edgartown police subdue a scantily clad man who created a disturbance at the Harbor View Hotel. Photo by Tara Kenny
Mr. Berdine said it appeared as though Mr. Novoselov was in search of a culinary implement with which to open his lobster. A few minutes later, he heard one of two restaurant staff members who quickly escorted Mr. Novoselov out of the restaurant say, "Just get him the crackers, and get him out of here."
With his lobster now tucked into a plastic bag, Mr. Novoselov headed across the street from the Harbor View toward the Edgartown lighthouse. Lt. Tony Bettencourt said Edgartown police officers responded to a call around 8 pm concerning an intoxicated male wearing underwear in front of the Harbor View Hotel on North Water Street. The police officers reported that they arrived to find Mr. Novoselov allegedly exposing himself in front of the hotel, as he headed toward the Edgartown Lighthouse.
They arrested him on charges of open and gross lewdness. Mr. Novoselov was arraigned in the Edgartown District Court on Monday.
Perhaps unnerved by Saturday night's events, a few days later on Tuesday morning, someone phoned the Edgartown police to report another possible "flasher" in the same spot, across the street near the lighthouse, in front of the Harbor View Hotel.
"It turned out to be nothing," Lieutenant Bettencourt explained. "It was a person of Indian descent who was praying - and he was dressed."
Harbor View Hotel general manager Richard McAuliffe did not return a phone call requesting a comment in time for Tuesday's deadline.
