Cops Corner: Pelican Press

Jan. 28
Talk about good luck!
11:25 a.m. — 500 block of Beach Road. Found Property. A deputy reported finding a brown, tri-fold wallet with $40 in cash, a credit card, a Florida driver’s license and college ID cards. The deputy was able to contact the owner, who said he would pick it up the following day.

Feb. 1
Foggy memory?
8 a.m. — 6100 block of Midnight Pass Road. Residential Burglary. A man and woman, both 68, reported that their condo had been burglarized and their sport utility vehicle stolen between 10 p.m. the previous night and 8 a.m. that day, while they were asleep. The woman said that when she awoke, she found the rear door slightly ajar. When she looked in the kitchen, she spotted her husband’s pants on the counter. When the husband checked the pants, he found his vehicle keys and $100 in cash were missing. He said he had left the pants on the floor next to his bed before going to sleep. The responding deputy could find no sign of forced entry. However, the couple insisted they had locked the door before going to bed the previous night.

Feb. 2
Ran out of gas?
9 a.m. — 7600 block of Midnight Pass Road. Assist Other Agency. A deputy responding to a call about an abandoned vehicle found a car with a Florida license plate. When the deputy ran the tag number, he found the vehicle had been reported stolen in Charlotte County. The deputy notified the investigating officers in the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office and had the vehicle towed to a Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office facility for processing before the Charlotte County officers arrived to retrieve it.

Tired of pedaling
2:16 p.m. — 6100 block of Midnight Pass Road. Found Property. A deputy found a blue 18-speed bicycle with a basket. He reported that it might be linked to a December report regarding a stolen bike; he was investigating further.

Bike bandit strikes again
1 p.m. — 700 block of Beach Road. Grand Theft. A 51-year-old woman called the Sheriff’s Office to report that two of her bicycles had been stolen from her condominium complex during the past two weeks. The woman said she was a seasonal resident who commuted between Sarasota and another state every two weeks. When she returned from her most recent trip to that other state, she found both bikes missing from a bike rack in front of the condo complex. She said they had been locked to the rack. The lock evidently had been cut, she said, but it was missing, too. The woman knew the serial number of just one of the bicycles. However, she said this was the second time she had had two bikes stolen from the complex; the first time was in November.