Cops Corner

Oct. 3
Dipping into the collection plate
10:30 a.m. — 5300 Midnight Pass Road. Burglary. A church employee said someone had entered the church and stolen $10 in change from a closet. The thief also moved a wheelchair and scribbled some unknown things on a dry-erase board. Deputies were able to pull fingerprints from the wheelchair.

Oct. 4
Wedding woes
9 p.m. — 100 block of Avenida Messina. Grand Theft. A man was staying at a resort, attending a wedding. He left his room open, so guests and wedding workers could use the bathroom. When he awoke the morning after the wedding, he noticed $400 he had hidden in a drawer was missing.

Oct. 5
Fool me twice
7 a.m. — 6300 block of Midnight Pass Road. Grand Theft. A woman befriended a man at a drug-treatment house and invited him to stay at her home after he was evicted. She had $450 in a day planner in her home, and when she went to an office building to pay a bill, she noticed some of the money was missing. She immediately suspected her drug-treatment friend. Later that day, he arrived at her house and asked to borrow some money. She told him no, because he had already stolen some money. She walked out of the room to look for the money again, but left her purse next to the man. While she was gone, the man abruptly said he had to leave. She walked back into the room and saw that $180 was missing from her purse. Deputies are currently searching for the man.

Battle of the bulge
1:30 p.m. — 8200 block of South Tamiami Trail. Retail Theft. A department-store employee watched a young woman enter a dressing room with two pairs of shorts, two tops and a necklace. She also was carrying her own purse, which appeared to be empty. She walked out of the dressing room without anything in her hands and her purse so full that it was bulging. The employee went into the dressing room, and the only thing left behind was the price tag from the necklace. The employee confronted the woman, but she refused to let him look in her purse. She fled the store and drove away. The entire incident was caught on videotape.

Put to the test
2:20 p.m. — 1600 block of Ringling Boulevard. Criminal Mischief. A woman reported someone threw something at the business where she works. The unknown object broke the glass, but, because they were hurricane windows, the object did not penetrate the glass.

The wrong crowd
2:37 p.m. — 3100 block of Bellevue Street. Theft. A woman began noticing her jewelry disappearing piece by piece during the past few weeks. She said she didn’t think much of it until things were missing every other day. The woman suspects some of her son’s friends may be taking the jewelry, because they hang out at her home all the time.

Oct. 6
Way with words
6:30 p.m. — 1700 block of Ringling Boulevard. Obscene Phone Call. A 70-year-old man allegedly sent a sexual text message to a woman young enough to be his daughter. When the woman confronted him about the message, he acted like he didn’t know anything about it and said one of his friends must have sent the obscene text message as a joke. She did not think it was funny and called police, who warned him not to contact her again.