Cops Corner: Pelican Press

Jan. 26
Old keys, new ‘toys’
4:14 p.m. — 8600 block of Midnight Pass Road. Burglary. A 79-year-old man reported that he was away from his condo a few hours, during which time someone had entered his home and removed several items. He said he was missing a laptop computer, an iPad and $300 in cash. The man insisted he had locked both the regular lock on the door and his deadbolt. However, the responding deputy could find no signs of forced entry. The deputy did note in his report that the condo is a rental unit, so previous renters might have kept keys. The man said that the computer and iPad had been in plain view. The bedroom appeared undisturbed, the deputy said, except that an envelope the man said had contained the cash was sitting empty atop a dresser. No one in the complex reported having seen anything suspicious.

Jan. 27
Ah, jewelry, too
10:13 a.m. — 8600 block of Midnight Pass Road. Residential Burglary. An 82-year-old woman called the Sheriff’s Office to report that someone had entered her condo during the previous month and stolen jewelry and cash. The previous night, she had noticed that a gold necklace with three diamond rings on it — valued at $1,200 — and $100 in cash were missing from the top of a dresser in her spare bedroom. She had not worn the necklace since Dec. 7, she said. The woman could find no signs of forced entry. However, a tenant in the same building had reported a theft the previous day. (See item above.) The deputy added that the cases might be related.

Jan. 28
A tight fit
12:36 a.m. — Intersection of Ocean Boulevard and Canal Road. Having an Open Container of Alcohol in Public. A 22-year-old man from Lakeland was walking north on Ocean Boulevard when he spotted a deputy and a lieutenant from the Sheriff’s Office sitting in their cars. The man turned around and tried to hide a beer he had been raising to his lips, the deputy reported. The man first put the beer behind him; then, he put it in the front right pocket of his blue jeans. The deputy arrested him.

Don’t contradict me!
1:40 a.m. — 5100 block of Ocean Boulevard. Simple Battery. A cab driver approached a deputy on routine patrol in the Village and reported a customer had just punched him in the head. The man said he had responded to a call to pick up the customer at a restaurant on the south end of the Key. When the driver began driving the 46-year-old male customer home, the customer began arguing with him about the route he was taking. The customer was seated directly behind him, the cab driver said. As the driver headed past a Village nightclub, the customer hit the driver in the back of the head with his closed fist. When the driver stopped, the customer jumped out of the vehicle, opened the driver’s door and struck him in the face. Although he had no visible injuries, according to a deputy, the driver said he wanted to press charges. The customer told the deputy the driver had picked him up. However, the customer said that as the driver started through the Village, he had tried to tell the driver that wasn’t the best way to go. Then, they began arguing. The customer denied striking the driver. Nonetheless, the deputy reported, the customer was visibly intoxicated, so the deputy charged him with battery.

Jan. 29
Spittin’ mad
2:42 a.m. — Intersection of Ocean Boulevard and Gleason Avenue. Driving Under the Influence. A 23-year-old woman from Georgia was driving north on Ocean Boulevard when she stopped in front of a nightclub and started blowing the horn of her vehicle. A Sheriff’s Office lieutenant saw she was not wearing a seatbelt. She then accelerated rapidly, traveling faster than the posted 20 mph speed limit, as she continued north out of the Village. After the lieutenant stopped her, he called a deputy for assistance. The deputy reported that he could smell alcohol on the woman’s breath. When she climbed out of the car, she was crying, the deputy said, and she had to lean against the vehicle to maintain her balance. Although the deputy asked her several times for her driver’s license, he said she was unable to produce it. She did give him her name, but she couldn’t spell her last name. When the deputy put her in the back of his patrol car to take her to jail, she began using profanity and yelling that he was assaulting her. She alternated between cursing and crying, he said. Then, when they reached the jail, she started yelling, “Lawyer!” before alternating again between cursing and crying. Jail staff finally had to put her in isolation in a holding cell, because she was being so combative. She then spit on the glass window of the cell and began kicking the door and banging her head against the door and the walls. Jail staff was able to get her into a restraining chair, for her safety, the deputy reported. They also put a “spit mask” on her.