- December 26, 2025
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1:44 a.m. Jan. 9, 5300 block of Gulf of Mexico Drive
Suspicious Vehicle: A Longboat Key officer on patrol noticed a car parked and running in the lot of a business after hours. The officer approached the suspicious vehicle and found a man and woman in the back seat. The man said he and his girlfriend were, “enjoying some snuggle time and watching Netflix,” the report states. The officer explained to the couple that the businesses in this lot were closed, and they needed to move to a more appropriate location to continue snuggle time. After receiving a verbal warning, the couple was sent on their way to watch Netflix somewhere else.
3:30 p.m. Jan. 24, 500 block of Bay Isles Parkway
Disturbance: Longboat Key officers were dispatched to a reported verbal disturbance. The officers met with the manager of a dry cleaning service who said a man started a verbal argument about two pairs of pants that were allegedly lost. According to the manager, he gave the man a check for one pair of pants, but the second pair was found and returned to the man. The business policy, though, states they are not responsible for lost articles of clothing.
The pants owner became irate, according to the report, and demanded they pay for his second pair of pants or else he would refuse to leave. The man also said the second pair of pants that the business found were not his original pair. The officers reminded the pants owner of the business’ policy and advised him this was a civil matter, not criminal. The man was also advised it was in his best interest to leave the business to avoid further incidents. He left with two pairs of pants and the check to buy a new pair.
10:18 p.m. Feb. 15, 500 block of Bay Isles Parkway
Trespassing: A store employee contacted emergency dispatch to report a man who refused to leave the property after being asked to do so. Upon arrival, the responding officer met with the store employee who said he was trying to close up the shop when he observed the man in question loitering in the back of the property. After the employee asked him to leave, the man moved to another side of the building where he remained. The employee said he wished to have the man trespassed from the property.
The officer then spoke to the loitering man who said he did not feel like he was trespassing because he moved to the back of the property. When asked for his identification, the man gave his out-of-state driver’s license and a Florida identification card that belonged to a different man in Clearwater, Florida. The man said he recently found that one.
While speaking with the man, he revealed he moved from Arizona and was heading south from Clearwater to somewhere “he could find alligators and make YouTube videos swimming with them,” the report states. The man refused any medical treatment and, after completing an official trespass warning, was sent on his way.
6:57 p.m. March 20, 3300 block of Gulf of Mexico Drive
Citizen Assist: A citizen called 911 and wanted officers to solve the traffic delay on the island, which prompted dispatching a Longboat Key officer. The responding officer tried calling the complainant, who refused to answer. No officers were required for the "incident," though, since the severe backup was determined to be normal seasonal traffic.
10:20 a.m. March 22, 3700 block of Gulf of Mexico Drive
Disturbance: Dispatch sent officers to a reported disturbance at a homeowners' association meeting. At the scene, the complainant told officers several people were instigating a coup on the HOA and had been talking loudly to prevent the meeting from starting. But by the time officers arrived, the individuals stopped talking, and the meeting pursued without issue. There was no crime or ordinance violation, so the officers closed the case.
1:04 a.m. April 23, 6400 block of Gulf of Mexico Drive
Suspicious Person: While on patrol, a Longboat Key officer noticed a vehicle in a parking lot of a church after hours. The officer investigated further and quickly found a man walking down the stairs of the church. The man said he was driving on the island and made a pit stop because he was sad. He had an urge to play music, so he called a friend and played guitar on the back steps of the church. When the officer found the man, he was holding a guitar, which helped to corroborate the story. The man said he was not an employee of the church, nor did he have permission to be there. The officer checked the perimeter to ensure the man did not illegally enter the church, and once the search returned negative, the man was asked to leave the premises.
8:46 p.m. April 26, 3000 block of Harbourside Drive
Rescue Assist: Longboat Key Police Department personnel were sent to assist the Longboat Key Fire Rescue Department in a rescue call involving burn victims. Fire rescue personnel on scene advised the responding officer a woman attending a wedding got too close to a candle, which ignited her dress and caused burn injuries requiring immediate attention. A second victim also had burn injuries, both were transported to a nearby hospital.
3:38 p.m. May 8, 500 block of Saint Judes Drive
Suspicious Incident: A citizen called Longboat Key police to report a suspicious incident at a nearby residence. About a foot away from the road, the officer found six knives stabbed in the ground. The incident did not appear to be criminal, according to the officer’s report. The officer collected the knives to dispose of them and maintain resident safety. How or why the knives appeared in the ground was unclear.
3:33 p.m. May 12, 100 block of Sands Pointe
Suspicious Incident: A resident called emergency services and requested that someone come investigate a suspicious package. The call prompted a response from both police and fire rescue departments. First responders investigated the package, which was shipped through the United States Postal Service from Missouri with the resident's address. The resident said he did not know who the person was who sent him the package.
Officers opened the box and found what appeared to be rotten fruit. To make matters more strange, the listed return address said it was belonging to a graphic design company. There was nothing more for the officers to do, and the status of the fruit box remained unclear.
11:22 p.m. May 21, 7200 block of Gulf of Mexico Drive
Disturbance: Officers responded to a call referencing a suspicious group of men throwing objects and spitting in the water. Upon arrival, the officer found four fishermen who claimed they were not throwing or spitting anything. According to the officer’s report, no objects were floating in the nearby water. The fishermen told the officer that a boat approached them and started to yell at them, telling the fishermen they could not afford a boat. The group backed up the claim with a video they took of the altercation. The boat was nowhere to be found, though, and the claim of throwing and spitting appeared to be false.
5:11 p.m. June 6, 200 block of Sands Point Road
Animal Problem: A citizen requested animal services for his claim that a bird was attacking customers. A Longboat Key police officer reached out to the man via phone and learned there was a bird standing outside the front lobby of a business and attacking customers so much that staff had to block off part of the front lobby to prevent injuries. The man requested that animal services remove the bird, so the Longboat officer contacted Sarasota County Animal Services. The department said it could not relocate birds or nests and that the actions taken by the bird seemed to be natural.
2:04 p.m. June 21, Police headquarters
Lost item: The owner of a large flotation mat was reunited with his wayward beach gear through the power of social media and good Samaritan vibes. A vacationer brought the large floaty to the police department, noting he had seen it fly out of a passing pickup truck on Gulf of Mexico Drive. The vacationer did not leave a name, saying, “he did not want to risk being mentioned in the local newspaper.’’ The owner posted about his loss on social media, received word from someone about its possible fate and made arrangements to pick it up. The owner produced a receipt proving it was his.
9:05 p.m. July 12, 400 block of Firehouse Court
Citizen assist: Officers assisted two out-of-town women who found themselves put ashore by a boating acquaintance for, as they reported to police, “talking too much.’’ Officers encountered the pair after they had flagged down a passer-by for help. The women told police they had been aboard the boat of a man they had met a few days prior, and he became agitated with their conversation while offshore near Longboat Key. They said he beached the boat, threw many of their belongings overboard and ordered them off the vessel. He then motored away. The women’s cell phones were dead and the rest of their non-overboard belongings, including their vehicles, were at the Tampa marina from which the boating trip originated. Police brought them back to the station, allowed them to charge their phones and to summon a ride back to Tampa. Police determined no crime had taken place.
7:15 p.m. Aug. 8, 567 Bay Isles Drive
Suspicious person: Police were called to a place of worship on a Friday evening after an employee reported a suspicious person.
Dispatch relayed to officers that a person was walking around a synagogue’s parking lot in the rain. When police arrived on scene, the employee described to officers that a man wearing dark clothes was walking “in an aggressive manner” around the property, prompting them to call police. Officers canvassed the area looking for the suspicious person but found nobody matching the description at or near the synagogue. As a precaution, officers remained on scene until all attendees had left the grounds. Officers saw nothing of note and closed the case later that night.
12:32 a.m. Aug. 17, 200 block of Broadway Street
Suspicious vehicle: Police observed a vehicle parked after hours at a beach access, prompting the officer to find the driver of the vehicle. When the officer was walking down the beach access, he ran into a couple who were hastily getting dressed while walking. Both the man and the woman were shoving items into their pockets they were trying to hide and told the officer they were just having sex on the beach (not the drink). Police asked both of them to remove their hands from their pockets. The couple complied, revealing their clenched fists holding their respective underwear. The woman said they were in town for a friend’s birthday and just wanted to fool around on the beach. Police issued a parking citation.
Noon Sept. 22, Longboat Club Road
Suspicious incident: Police were called to a Gulf side condominium complex to investigate the origins of a puzzling package delivered to a residence. The housekeeper of the residence, staying at the condo in the absence of the owner, called police because on the doorstop, she found half of a rotting watermelon wrapped in saran wrap placed in a Lou Malnati’s pizza box. The package had been disposed of by the time police arrived. The owner of the condo, currently in Illinois where Lou Malnati’s is located, was contacted about the incident. He said he has several estranged family members that he hypothesized may be involved with the incident. He said he tried to use the package’s tracking number for more information but that his investigation did not lead to any findings. No surveillance footage was immediately available, but the property manager told police he would send any evidence he comes across. Police closed the case, but questions remain.
3:04 p.m. Oct. 4, 4052 Gulf of Mexico Drive
Suspicious person: Cops were called to a public park on Sarasota Bay after an anonymous caller told dispatchers they saw a surfer holding a rope being pulled by an electric bike. Not quite parasailing, the officer attempted to locate the biker surfer duo, but could not locate either. The case was closed.
4:50 p.m. Oct. 16, 220 Sands Point Road
Suspicious person: Police were called to a resort and golf club on Longboat Key after a man was seen driving around and “talking outlandish about the resort.” Upon arrival, officers spoke with the complainant who provided a name for the guest and what he was up to. Police were told the man was complaining about the resort and was saying he would get everyone fired because he knew a president famous for the punchline “you’re fired.” The man who called police said he was worried about the mental state of the man, who then arrived and proudly told police he was an employee of a “big sign company” and that he was going to throw a party with very important “elite” guests. The man who called police and the big sign man agreed to handle the issues civilly. Police closed the case.
10:17 a.m. Oct. 28, 5400 block of Gulf of Mexico Drive
Citizen assist: A police officer was driving on Gulf of Mexico Drive when he saw a large car part in the road along with a prone raccoon. The police officer removed the car part and called back to the station requesting a shovel to get the raccoon off the road. Just then, the raccoon got up and walked off the street. Hours later, a caller informed dispatch that he hit what he thought was an armadillo and was missing a wheel cover and was wondering if it had been found. The case was closed, pending civil action by the raccoon.
11:32 a.m. Nov. 12, 675 Longboat Club Road
Abandoned 911 call: Dispatched police went to a condo complex after an abandoned 911 call from a business. Police responded and made contact with the property owner, who said his faulty fax machine caused the call. The case was closed.
12:45 p.m. Nov. 18, 595 Bay Isles Road
Civil disturbance: The driver of a car carrier and a part-time resident got into it during the drop off of a Corvette, prompting calls to police on a battery call. When police arrived, the Corvette owner told the officer there was damage to his car during transport from Michigan and that he and the driver had gotten into an argument. The driver told the officer that during the drop off, the man grabbed him by the arm. He told police he just wanted to be paid for delivery of the vehicle. The driver’s story of the arm-grab was that the driver jumped into the Corvette during the argument and he grabbed him to pull him out of his vehicle. The officer saw no signs of redness on the driver’s arm. The situation resolved itself when it was agreed that the Corvette owner would take the issue of any vehicle damage up with the car carrier company “in a civil manner” and the officer stood by while the driver and car owner completed their transaction. Police then closed the case.
8 a.m. Nov. 26, 1000 block Gulf of Mexico Drive
Suspicious incident: Police were called by a woman who reported that a vehicle had been following her. When police arrived, the woman told the officer that she first noticed a gray sedan when she visited the post office. The next day, she saw the same vehicle again. Days later, she saw the same vehicle with the same driver parked near her residence, and she thought she was being followed. She took a photo of the license plate which she provided to the officer. A license plate search determined the identity of the man, and an internet search revealed him to be a private investigator. With that information revealed, police determined this did not meet the criteria of stalking, and closed the case.
