Cops Corner: Pelican Press

The following information was gathered from incident and arrest reports obtained from the Sarsota County Sheriff’s Office.

Feb. 11
Red ride
12:32 p.m. — 6200 block of Ocean Boulevard. Grand Theft. A 61-year-old man reported the theft of a red bicycle, valued at $500. He said someone must have taken it between 9 a.m. Feb. 9 and 9 a.m. Feb. 10.

Damage control
11:54 p.m. — 5200 block of Ocean Boulevard. Battery. A 50-year-old man called the Sheriff’s Office to report that he and his 53-year-old wife had been in an argument inside a Village restaurant. When his wife left, he said, she dented the front of his truck and broke the side mirror. A deputy told the man that, because the couple is married, the damage to the truck could not be considered a crime. The man said he didn’t want to press charges anyway; he just wanted the incident documented. He then told the deputy that the wife had slapped him in the neck before she left the restaurant; however, he said he did not want that incident documented. When the deputy asked him for more details, the man said his wife had thrown a glass of wine at him, and it had hit him on his left shoulder. Then, she had slapped him and gone outside, where she damaged his truck. The man did not have any injuries, he said, adding that he planned to stay at a friend’s home for a few days. Because his wife had no idea about his plans, he said, he did not think she would harm him further. The man also said they had no history of domestic violence, and he asked the deputy not to try to talk to his wife. The deputy gave the man a card for Safe Place and Rape Crisis Center in Sarasota.

Feb. 12
A quiet place to snooze
11:25 a.m. — 600 block of Calle del Otono. Residential Burglary. A 78-year-old woman reported that about 10:15 a.m. that day, she had gone downstairs to the garage level of her home. She saw a man walking away from her breezeway door, heading west. The woman said she believed he had gained entry to her garage through a window she keeps open about 2 inches for ventilation and had slept inside. She added that she had not found any sign that anything had been stolen.

Feb. 14
Incentive for rehab
11 p.m. — 9000 block of Midnight Pass Road. Stolen Vehicle. A 43-year-old woman had called the Sheriff’s Office about 6 p.m. to report that her 22-year-old daughter had taken her car and refused to return it. The woman told a deputy she was monitoring a cell-phone GPS, to try to determine where her daughter was, but was having no success. Then, the woman called the deputy just before 11 p.m. that same day to report the return of the car. When the deputy arrived at the mother’s residence, he saw the vehicle and noted it appeared undamaged. The daughter, who was at the home with her mother, admitted not only to having taken the vehicle but also to having a drug problem. The daughter said she was seeking help for the latter. The mother said she did not want to press charges, but she wanted to make sure her daughter continued with drug rehabilitation.

Feb. 15
A suspension’s the least of it
12:24 a.m. — Intersection of Avenida Madera and Calle Minorga. Driving Under the Influence. A deputy spotted a 37-year-old man and his girlfriend holding hands and sleeping in a vehicle parked near a Village nightclub. The deputy noted that the vehicle’s engine was running, and its lights were on. The deputy reported that the couple did not wake up when he shone a flashlight beam on them. After the deputy knocked on the window several times, the man woke up abruptly, sat up and turned off the engine. He then put the keys under the driver’s seat, took them back out, put them under the seat again, then reached under the seat and removed them once more before putting them in his pants pocket. He was looking around and acting confused, the deputy reported. When the deputy asked for his license and registration, the man had difficulty finding them; the deputy saw the man’s hands move over them several times. When the deputy asked the man to step out of the vehicle, the deputy reported he could smell the distinctive odor of an alcoholic beverage on the man. The man also had bloodshot eyes, and his speech was slurred, the deputy reported. The man told the deputy he was not drunk and that the only reason he had kept the car running was to keep the heat on. He added that he had had very little to drink and that he had not passed out. In fact, he said, he couldn’t drink, because he was waiting to go into the nightclub to promote his music. The man then insisted he had had nothing to drink and that he felt he could operate a vehicle safely, though he was not going anywhere right at that time. He followed up those statements with the comment that he has a back problem, for which he takes medication, though he wasn’t sure what type of medication. After the deputy arrested the man on a DUI charge and put the man into the back of the patrol car, the man started screaming and “using extreme profanity,” the deputy reported. When they arrived at the jail, the man refused to answer any questions. The man told officers he would not take a breath test, because he was not driving a vehicle when the deputy found him.. The man also said, “I don’t agree to have my license suspended.”