Cops Corner: Pelican Press

Feb. 19
Memory matter
8:03 a.m. — 5200 block of Ocean Boulevard. Stolen Vehicle Recovered. A deputy looking for a vehicle that had been reported stolen found it parked in the rear lot of a Village bar, off Calle Menorca. It was not in a designated parking space, she reported; instead, it had been left alongside the fenced-in garbage bins. The deputy reported that she tried three times to contact the 45-year-old male owner at the number he had provided, but she got only his voice mail each time. She dusted the vehicle for fingerprints, but she added in her report that she suspected the owner had forgotten he had left the vehicle at the spot where she had found it. The deputy noted that she could see numerous valuables inside the vehicle, and it was locked.

Feb. 20
A likely story
11:08 p.m. — 5400 block of Avenida del Mare. Burglary. A 58-year-old mother reported that her son and his girlfriend had stayed in her home three consecutive nights, starting Feb. 13. Her son broke up with his girlfriend Feb. 16, she said. The 40-year-old girlfriend immediately packed her belongings and left, the mother reported, adding that the girlfriend never had a key to the residence. The woman locked her doors and left her home about 11 a.m. Feb. 20, she said. At 6:30 p.m. that day, the woman’s sister entered the home and found a threatening handwritten note, signed by the ex-girlfriend. The note said the ex-girlfriend planned to harm another woman and blame it on her ex-boyfriend’s mother. The sister left the note on a counter, then exited the residence and called the mother at work. The sister added that she had seen no signs of forced entry. The son had met his mother at work the same day, the report said, so the mother could give him her house keys. When he returned his mother’s keys, the report says, his mother was unable to talk with him about the note. The mother said she was not sure where her son was living, and he did not have a phone. When the mother returned home that evening, she noticed panels from the bathroom window had been removed and placed on the ground outside. Someone had opened her jewelry box in her bedroom and looked through her closet, she added, and her digital camera was missing. She said she did not find the note the ex-girlfriend had left and suspected her son had taken it with him.

Feb. 21
One drink too many
9:08 p.m. — 4700 block of Ocean Boulevard. Driving Under the Influence. A deputy headed north on Ocean Boulevard saw a vehicle pull into the center turn lane to pass another vehicle that was making a turn ahead of it. That area is a no-passing zone, the deputy reported. After the deputy stopped the passing vehicle, she detected an odor of alcohol coming from its interior. The 25-year-old woman driver denied having had any alcohol, then changed her story and said she had had one drink. The deputy called a second deputy to conduct a sobriety test on the driver. When the second deputy arrived, he reported that the woman driver was visibly upset, sitting in her vehicle and talking on her cell phone. He added that she had an obvious odor of alcohol on her person. When she spoke with him, he said, she slurred her speech. She was upset, she said, because she had received a speeding citation earlier in the day. In response to questions from the deputy, the woman said she had had only one daiquiri at a Village bar and that she had felt she was able to drive. She had thought it was all right to pass the other vehicle, she added, because it was turning off the street. The woman had difficulty performing the sobriety exercises the deputy asked her to do, so the deputy took her to the jail. There, the woman submitted to two breath tests. She blew a .153 on the first test and a .143 on the second one. The legal limit for driving in Florida is .08.

Pistol-packin’ pelican?
Noon — 8000 block of Midnight Pass Road. Lost/Found Property. A 67-year-old man who had visited Turtle Beach Park reported that he believed he had left his red fanny pack on top of his vehicle when he was preparing to leave, and he had driven away without retrieving it. The fanny pack contained not only his cell phone and wallet but also his concealed firearm. He went back to check the area after he realized what had happened, he reported, but he was unable to locate the missing gun.

Feb. 22
Wanted to keep the party going
1:42 a.m. — 5200 block of Ocean Boulevard. Disturbance. The manager of a Village nightclub reported a 20-year-old male customer had caused a disturbance, so security personnel had escorted the man outside. The man came back in, so they took him back outside. The man came back in again, the manager said. A deputy issued the trespass warning, noting in her report that the man was intoxicated. The man’s parents came to pick him up, the deputy added.