Cops Corner

July 18
A friend in need ...
4 a.m. — 1700 block of Ringling Boulevard. Attempt to Locate Vehicle. A man got drunk at a bar and asked his friend to drive him home. The friend drove the man’s car, dropped off the man and left in the car. The next morning, the man couldn’t get in touch with his friend and had no idea where the car was. He told police he didn’t want to press charges. He just wanted his car back.

July 19
Kids these days
11:30 p.m. — 900 block of Beach Road. Possession of Alcohol by a Minor. A deputy patrolling a public beach saw two minors holding Styrofoam cups while they walked outside the bathroom. The deputy said the pair was stumbling, so he asked to see what was in the cups. He smelled alcohol in the cups, and the minors admitted to drinking. As the deputy began calling their parents, the two began yelling at him. The following is the conversation the deputy wrote in his report: “You’re a @!&*, and you can’t do a @!&* thing to me. I have no respect for this @!&*. You’re a @!&* for messing with us over a little alcohol. You’re only messing with us because you’re a @!&*.” Both were taken to jail where they could curse to their hearts’ content.

July 20
Creative block
7 a.m. — 7100 block of Curtiss Avenue. Grand Theft. A business owner said he gave a painter $2,000 to buy supplies for a repainting job. When the business owner called the hardware store, he was told that the purchase was only $659. He asked the painter why he did not return the sizeable amount of change, and the painter refused to keep working until he was paid for the job. The painter had been given a key to the building, and when the business owner arrived at work the next morning, all the supplies were gone. Deputies have not been able to find the painter.

July 21
Mystery shopper
12:30 p.m. — 8400 block of South Tamiami Trail. Petit Theft. The victim was inside a discount store when someone stole her purse from her shopping cart. The victim believes another woman who was in the shoe section with her may have stolen the purse. The store does not have surveillance cameras in its shoe section.

Boost of energy
7:53 p.m. — 1300 block of South Tamiami Trail. Petit Theft and Resisting Arrest without Violence. A man walked into a supermarket, grabbed a Red Bull energy drink near the entrance, drank it and discarded it on a shelf inside the store. He then picked up a gallon of water and started to walk out of the store. Two police officers began chasing him.
 

The suspect and one officer ran into a door and knocked it off its hinges. The suspect got up and tried to run again, but the second officer grabbed him. Perhaps if he had downed a second Red Bull, he might have had the juice to get away.

Serial pervert
10:48 a.m. — 400 block of Cocoanut Avenue. Lewd and Lascivious Behavior. A woman was swimming in her apartment-complex pool when a man walked up to the gate and exposed himself. She told police he has been doing this a couple of times a week and she “is tired of it.” The man was wearing a shirt with the letters “CSI” on it.

I don’t see any scratch
2:54 p.m. — 1 block of Bayfront Drive. Civil Problem. A man rented a Jet Ski, and when he returned it, there was fresh damage on it. A rental-business employee said the Jet Ski was fine when the man took it out on the water. The man denied causing any damage.