Cops Corner: Pelican Press

Sept. 22
Short-sighted
10:30 p.m. — 5100 block of Ocean Boulevard. Grand Theft. A woman waved down a deputy in front of a Village nightclub and told him her purse had been stolen. She said she had left it on the bar while she was dancing. The purse contained her driver’s license, about $50 in cash and miscellaneous credit cards. When she went to retrieve it, she found it missing. The deputy asked the nightclub staff about checking the video surveillance, but the staff told him the corner of the bar where the woman had left her purse was not in the camera’s range.

Sept. 23
That’s how we do it
4:18 p.m. — 900 block of Siesta Drive. Suspicious Incident. An anonymous caller reported two men in their 30s in the bed of a pickup truck, shooting arrows into the water. They told the police officer who responded to the call that they were fishing for mullet. One of the men was from Apollo Beach; the other, from Plant City. The officer contacted a Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission officer, who said it was legal for them to fish that way.

She said it
1:33 a.m. — 6100 block of Midnight Pass Road. Driving Under the Influence. A deputy observed a vehicle drifting from side to side in its lane. It crossed the double yellow line multiple times. When the deputy stopped the driver, her face was flushed, her eyes bloodshot and glazed and her speech slurred and thick, the deputy reported. When he asked for her registration, she fumbled with the papers and dropped some in her lap. When the deputy asked where she was headed, she said she was on her way to the beach. She had been at a pub in a subdivision near University Parkway, she said. When he asked how much she had had to drink, she said, “A lot; more than I probably should,” then admitted she had been drinking margaritas and beer throughout the night. The driver proceeded to have difficulty performing the sobriety tests administered by the deputy. After she refused the breath test twice, the deputy transported her to the jail.

Sept. 25
You know, what’s-his-name
11:30 a.m. — 5300 block of Ocean Boulevard. Suspicious Person. A deputy responded to a call complaining about an unwanted person on hotel property. Upon the deputy’s arrival, the complainant told him that a homeless man was swimming in the pool on the property, and the complainant wanted the man gone. When the deputy approached the man in the pool, the man said an employee had told him he could swim there; he just couldn’t remember which employee it was. The deputy warned the man to leave and not return. The man was escorted off the property without incident.

Sept. 27
get rid of the evidence
9:30 a.m. — 5000 block of Ocean Boulevard. Petit Theft. A deputy responding to a report of a theft at a convenience store saw a man sitting on a bench, drinking from the bottle of wine that allegedly had been stolen from the store. The store clerk said the man had bought a drink, then returned to the cooler area. The man left the store without making another purchase. After the man walked out, the merchant next-door saw the man pull a bottle of wine out of his pants; he notified the convenience store clerk. When he checked the wine cooler, which he had just stocked, the clerk discovered a bottle was missing. That bottle matched the description of the $8 bottle of wine from which the deputy had seen the man drinking. Based on those facts, the deputy said he felt the man should be charged.