Cops Corner: Siesta Key

Sept. 16
Those nagging suspicions
8 p.m. — 2000 block of Siesta Drive. Criminal Mischief. An employee at the Siesta Drive Post Office reported she had discovered her right rear tire had been punctured about 8 a.m., when she was preparing to leave for work. Although she lives in Manatee County, she told a police officer she suspected the tire had been damaged at the post office. She said she was new to that office and recently had had some disagreements with other employees there. Video surveillance did not aid the investigation, and people the complainant identified as potential suspects said they knew nothing about the incident. The officer was unable to determine whether the incident did indeed occur at the post office.

Sept. 28
Not a good time to talk
6:05 p.m. — 5100 block of Siesta Drive. Suspicious Incident. A man reported that he was giving a female friend a ride home when she told him a taxi driver had touched her inappropriately. The man told the responding deputy not to call the woman during the daytime, however, because she would not talk about the incident when her boyfriend was around. The deputy took no further action.

Sept. 29
How many drinks?
12:05 a.m. — 5100 block of Ocean Boulevard. Disorderly Intoxication. Three deputies were in front of a Village nightclub when the security staff began removing two people who had refused to pay the cover charge, then had refused to leave after being asked repeatedly to do so. Once the two people were outside, they began causing a disturbance. As the first deputy talked with one person, another deputy asked the second person, a man, to step toward the wall, next to the first person, for the safety of the officers. The man refused. When the deputy asked again and told the man he would be arrested if he did not step up to the wall, the man put his hands in front of his face. The deputy reached out to grab one of the man’s hands, to place it behind the man’s back and told the man he was being placed under arrest. The man began trying to pull away from the deputy. The first deputy heard a scuffle behind him and turned around to see the second deputy wrestling with the man. It took two deputies to push the man to the ground. The man refused to put his hands behind his back or to roll onto his stomach, so the second deputy stunned the man with his Taser, to enable the other two deputies to get the man’s hands behind his back. The first deputy reported the man smelled of alcohol. The man told the deputies, however, that he had not been drinking. Then he admitted he’d had one drink. By the time he reached the jail, he said he’d had a couple of drinks.

Oct. 2
Identity crisis
10:29 a.m. — Intersection of Midnight Pass Road and Solitude Lane. Habitual Driving While License Suspended. While on patrol on Stickney Point Road, a deputy ran the license tag of a vehicle he had spotted and found the tag listed a woman driver only. However, a man was driving the vehicle. Upon further investigation, the deputy discovered a man listed on the registration at the same address as the woman. He also learned that the man was a habitual traffic offender. Upon verifying that that man’s driver’s license photo matched the driver’s appearance, the deputy stopped the vehicle and asked for the man’s license. The man said he didn’t have one. The deputy arrested him.

Oct. 4
Window work
9:30 p.m. — 6700 block of Sarasea Circle. Burglary. A guest at a resort said that between 8:30 and 9:30 p.m. that day, someone had forced open the bedroom window in the unit where he was staying and removed several items, including his wallet, $250 in cash, a credit card and a purse. The responding deputy could find no fingerprints and no sign of the items around the property. No witnesses to the incident could be found, either.