Cops Corner: Pelican Press

July 13
THE RIGHT THING
1:24 a.m. — 5200 block of Ocean Boulevard. Defrauding an Innkeeper. Security staff at a bar told police a man couldn’t pay his $43.50 tab because his credit card was declined. An officer told the man he could return the next day and pay the bill, but he declined because he wouldn’t have enough money then, either. The man insisted he be taken to jail “because it is the right thing to do.” After a deputy put him in a patrol car, he asked the officer to stop typing on his laptop and transport him to jail.

ALLERGIC TO THEFT
11:30 a.m. — 8900 block of Midnight Pass Road. Burglary of a Vehicle. A woman told police someone punched out the lock of her vehicle, which was parked at Turtle Beach, and stole three CDs and her pocket book. Her EpiPen was in the pocket book, and she did not recall the artists of the CDs.

WAT-ER YOU DOING?
7:10 p.m. — 8200 block of Midnight Pass Road. Theft of Utilities. After waking up without running water several times, a man told police he found the water main disconnected. A construction company working on a nearby residence had been tapping into his connection and using the man’s water. He confronted the construction manager twice, who apologized and fixed the connection. After the third occurrence, the homeowner filed charges, and the manager was arrested.

July 14
NOT-SO-COOL POOL PARTY
7 p.m. — 500 block of Beach Road. Suspicious Person. A woman reported that two people were causing a disturbance at a pool. Police found that the man and woman described were not residents of the property and asked them to leave.

July 16
ON CALL
8 a.m. — 5700 block of Pinkney Avenue. Harassment. The ex-girlfriend of an auto parts store manager called the business 10 times within a 12-minute span, prompting him to file a police report.
He told police she called his cell phone 107 times the week after he ended the couple’s relationship.

July 18
LITTLE BLOCK OF HORRORS
11: 19 p.m. — 5200 block of Calle Menorca. Criminal Mischief. A woman reported that two men had damaged a hedge in front of her house on two occasions. She said they didn’t substantially harm the plant the first time, but it would probably die after the most recent incident.

July 19
WAKE UP CALL
2:51 a.m. — Intersection of Canal Road and Ocean Boulevard. Driving Under the Influence. Police found a woman who had been sleeping in the driver’s seat of the vehicle to have bloodshot eyes and an odor of alcohol. She told an officer she had four “Sex on the Beach” drinks an hour earlier but slept in her car until she was prepared to drive. When the deputy asked the woman to recite from letters C to S in the alphabet, she instead recited letters D to Z.

CLEAN GETAWAY
3:48 p.m. — 400 block of Beach Road. Burglary of Vehicle. A woman returned to her car in the Siesta Key Beach parking lot and discovered that her Mickey Mouse wallet and a digital camera were missing. She told police she didn’t remember hearing the vehicle beep when she locked it earlier in the day, and there was no sign of forced entry. Deputies could not locate any fingerprints, noting that a thief may have used a napkin found near the car to clean the crime scene.

FABULOUS AND MISSING
5:03 p.m. — 5200 block of Tri Par Drive. Grand Theft. A woman who borrowed several wardrobe items from another woman refused to return them three weeks later. Police investigating the incident as a theft listed a shirt, two necklaces, two bracelets, two pairs of earrings and an engagement ring worth a total of $2,005 missing.