Cops Corner: Pelican Press

May 19
VAN DAMNED
4 p.m. — 5700 block of Midnight Pass Road. Stolen Vehicle. A man reported his van was stolen from the maintenance parking lot of a Siesta Key inn. The victim asserted to police that he was still making payments on the van, but there was no reason for it to be repossessed. The van was unlocked and the keys were hidden in the van’s center console.

TV DAZE
4:30 p.m. — 5200 block of Ocean Boulevard. Criminal Mischief. Twenty people between the ages of 25 and 30, all wearing blue shirts that read “Rhinos Quarter Century and Low Key Crawl” were watching a sports event in a Siesta Key bar. Management found a crack in the screen of the main flat-screen television in the group’s vicinity. The crowd, which management described as “mostly males and rowdy,” denied wrongdoing then left the bar. Police do not have any leads.

May 20
WORKOHOLIC
1:15 a.m. — 5200 block of Ocean Boulevard. Criminal Mischief. The manager of a Siesta Key Village bar reported a man broke the window of a nearby establishment after being ejected for causing a disturbance. Police pursued the suspect into another bar where he denied wrongdoing. After officers noticed his hand was bleeding, the man claimed he injured it at work earlier that day.

OFF DUTY
5:18 p.m. — 5300 block of Ocean Boulevard. Disturbance. A maintenance supervisor at a Siesta Key resort observed a former employee using the establishment’s hot tub. The man was issued a trespassing warrant and left without incident.

KEEP THE CHANGE
10:23 p.m. — 200 block of Avenida Madera. Petit Theft. An employee of an Italian restaurant never returned from a delivery valued at $90. Police attempted to call the employee’s cell phone, to no avail. The address and phone number of the intended recipient of the delivery were not found.

May 21
CYBER CHARLATAN
Midnight — 20 block of Sandy Cove Road. Suspicious Incident. A man attempting to sell a computer through an online auction site reported suspicious activity from a potential buyer. The seller received a text message stating the buyer had submitted a payment to an Internet payment site but discovered it was false. Police suspect the buyer was attempting to scam the seller out of the computer without paying.

May 22
CAMOUFLAGE FAIL
6 a.m. — 6300 block of Midnight Pass Road. Grand Theft. A man reported that his surfboard was stolen from outside his apartment. The board, a camouflage-colored 12-foot soft-top long board, is valued at $800. Police have no suspects.

AUDI HERE?
9:10 a.m. — 20 block of Sandy Cove Road. Stolen Vehicle. A man reported his vehicle, a 2012 Audi valued at $70,000, was missing from his driveway. The man’s son noticed the absent vehicle when he left for school. The victim said his proximity key might have been in his golf bag, allowing a thief to start the car remotely. The man advised police he paid cash for the car precluding any chance of repossession.

GAME OVER
8:46 a.m. — 4800 block of Higel Avenue. Vehicular Burglary. A video game console was stolen when two unlocked vehicles were reportedly burglarized while a family slept. The man who reported the crime stated that his daughter had woken up at 4 a.m., which was an abnormal happening, but did not investigate what had awoken her. The man’s wife took one vehicle to work, preventing police from dusting for fingerprints, but prints found on the remaining vehicle were submitted to the crime lab for analysis.