Longboat Key Cops Corner: Two-wheeled early-bird gets to work

Feb. 15

Early start

5:39 a.m., 600 block of General Harris Street

Suspicious circumstance: An officer stopping at the Public Works Department’s fuel pumps noticed a door on the building’s east side open, with lights on inside. A walk-in gate leaving to a parking area was open but no vehicles were in the lot. The officer reached an on-call employee who said a Public Works employee often arrives early to work and rides a bicycle. The officer found the bicycle inside.

Feb. 16

Open government

7:08 p.m., 500 block of  Bay Isles Road

Security check: While stopping by Town Call for a security check, an officer on patrol noticed a door unsecured. A check of the interior revealed nothing out of the ordinary. Cleaners possibly left the door unsecured, the officer reported.

Sorry

8:45 p.m., 600 block of Yardarm Lane

Disturbance: A complaint about a loud party prompted a response by police, who heard loud voices from the home’s pool area upon his arrival.  The people apologized and told the officer they would keep the noise down.

Feb. 17

Alarming situation

12:55 a.m., 5500 block of Gulf of Mexico Drive

Alarm report: Employees of a business had trouble setting an alarm as they left for the night, resulting in an officer hearing the alarm sounding. The business owner arrived to help.

Double parked, single ticket

2:17 p.m., 200 block of N. Shore Road

Parking: A station wagon double parked in the grass on North Shore Road was ticketed for violating posted rules.

Dogs alone

4:02 p.m., 7100 block of Firehouse Road

Animal: An officer was flagged down and informed that two dogs were left alone in a car nearby. The officer found the car, with the engine running and air conditioning on, with two large dogs inside. The officer reached his hand inside and found the air cooler than the outdoor air, and the dogs did not appear distressed. Using information gleaned from the vehicle license plate, the officer made a public-address system announcement from his patrol car to the nearby beach. When the vehicle owner presented himself, he was warned about leaving a vehicle running while unattended.

A lot on her mind

8:30 p.m., 1900 block of Gulf of Mexico Drive

Traffic: With the help of the town’s license-plate monitoring system, an officer learned a car entering town was owned by a person with an expired drivers license. Once stopped, the driver-owner told the officer she was expecting a child soon and in all the excitement did not realize her license had expired. She was warned for driving with a license expired less than six months. Her husband took over driving duties.

Feb. 18

Bird in a bind

2:46 p.m., 700 block of Lands End Drive

Animal rescue: A resident flagged down a marine-patrol officer and told him a bird was stuck in a tree. The officer was taken to the tree, where he found an osprey, hanging upside down from a limb, about 20-30 feet off the ground. Fire-Rescue also responded with a ladder truck and freed the bird. Save our Seabirds also responded and took the osprey for care without incident.

Cards missing

4:30 p.m., 3000 block of Gulf of Mexico Drive

Lost property: A man called police to report a credit card and his out of state drivers license missing from his wallet. He said he had last used the card the day before and the wallet had been in his car. He also reported the door to his vacation rental was found ajar.

Too early for work

7:40 a.m., 500 block of Gunwale Lane

Noise: Police responded to a neighborhood in response to a noise complaint. The officer who arrived found a construction foreman and told him about the town’s prohibition on work noise before 8 a.m., The foreman said he was unaware of the regulation and shut down work until a proper time.

Feb. 19

Geeky scam attempt

12:07 p.m., 4300 block of Chatham Drive

Attempted fraud: A resident reported to police an attempt to gain personal information via e-mail. The resident said a suspicious e-mail appeared, seeking $499 from a electronics-appliance store’s technical support subsidiary. The resident denied doing business with the company and did not return the email or call the supplied telephone number, which police said was linked to scammers.

Sunny mistake

1:31 p.m., 1600 block of Harbor Sound Drive

Alarm: An officer was sent to a home in response to an Onstar vehicle emergency alert. When the officer arrived, he found the car in the garage and overheard the Onstar operator speaking through the car’s sound system. The owner said it’s possible an emergency button might have been pushed instead of the car’s sunroof controls.

Dock on the bay

3:44 p.m., off the Key

Public service: Police performing a marine patrol spotted a small floating dock in the boating channel. It was towed out of the channel to shore, where the Public Works Department was informed about it for removal.

Dinner out tonight?

6:29 p.m., 700 block of Marbury Lane

Fire: Police responded to a home in connection with a report of an oven on fire. The officer who arrived first was asked if he had a fire extinguisher, which he grabbed and headed for the house, which smelled faintly of smoke. There was a pizza on a rack in the sink and the oven was open. The resident said the fire had been put out with a fire blanket. A synthetic pizza plate that had been used successfully before had caught fire in the oven.

Pumped up

7:41 p.m., 5400 block of Gulf of Mexico Drive

Property found: Police found a long, cylindrical container on the grass near the police department, sealed from the manufacturer and labeled as a sump pump. The box was set aside for safe keeping. The nearby fire department is having a well drilled and an e-mail was sent to determine if the contractor was missing a piece of equipment.

Feb. 20

Puppies on the loose

10:40 a.m., 600 block of Broadway Street

Animal call: An incident between a dog on a leash and two loose dogs brought police out to investigate. A dog walker said a pair of dogs, one of them dragging a leash, surrounded his leashed dog and tried to attack. No dogs were injured in the incident. After speaking with the dog walker, the officer spoke to a couple who were boarding a small boat nearby. One of them said the first dog jumped off the boat and ran off, followed by the second, and approached the dog being walked. The officer described the loose dogs as young and playful. A written warning was written on the leash violation.