Cops Corner

April 9
Morning ritual
8:38 a.m. — 3300 block of Bayou Sound. Trespassing. Police caught a man digging through garbage cans behind the walls of a resort, issued him a trespass warning and sent him on his way to find his breakfast elsewhere.

Santa’s off the wagon
12:23 p.m. — 400 block of GMD. Suspicious Person. A man reported a dirty, old man with a white beard in a gray sweatshirt walking around a condominium parking lot. Police couldn’t find the hygiene-challenged individual.

Bridge blunder
4:16 p.m. — Longboat Pass Bridge. Property Damage. A bridge tender with a quick draw told police that he accidentally lowered the bridge’s northern barricade on top of a man’s Cadillac while it was sitting in a line of traffic. The error caused $1,000 worth of damage.

Words of encouragement
6:49 p.m. — Intersection of Bay Isles Parkway and Harbourside Drive. Suspicious Person. Police caught a sport utility vehicle full of spring breakers driving too closely behind other vehicles. The vocal front-seat passenger was sticking her head out of the window and yelling at bicyclists along Gulf of Mexico Drive. Police issued the driver a citation, and all passengers were warned not to scare bicyclists. But the front-seat passenger told police she was only yelling “words of encouragement,” such as “Go, bikers,
go!”

April 10
Getting along swimmingly
4:05 a.m. — 5700 block of GMD. Suspicious Persons. Two men and a woman were found swimming in a condominium pool with beer bottles all around them at a time when most Longboaters are just waking for the day. Police ordered the group to clean up their mess and leave the area.

The wind took it
6:56 p.m. — 3100 block of GMD. Property damage. A man reported damage to his van’s windshield after it was cracked by an errant golf ball.

April 11
Close call
3:36 p.m. — 5800 block of GMD. Reckless Driving. A man told police that someone driving a maroon sport utility vehicle swerved the vehicle across both traffic lanes and almost hit him before continuing to drive northbound. Police couldn’t find the vehicle.

April 12
Till death do us …
4:09 a.m. — 200 block of Sands Point Road. Disturbance. Police responded to the scene of newlyweds, who had just married the day before. The newlyweds got into an argument when the husband became suspicious of a text message that his new bride was reading on her cell phone. Both parties were advised to spend the remainder of their honeymoon apart and work on their marriage after they leave Longboat Key.
 

April 14
Gotta get the groceries home
8:32 a.m. — 2000 block of Harbourside Drive. Assist Other Agency. Police cited a Longboat woman for leaving the scene of a parking-lot crash in Sarasota.

Just visiting
12:37 a.m. — 2600 block of Harbourside Drive. Suspicious Vehicle. The security guard at a marina told police he was not familiar with a boat docked at a nearby slip. Police verified that the boat owner was visiting the owners of a nearby slip.

April 15
It’s in the cards
11:43 a.m. — 500 block of Putter Lane. Soliciting. A resident reported business cards being placed on the doors of homes in his neighborhood. Because many of his neighbors are gone for the summer, he worried that thieves would notice the cards had not been removed and would come back to rob the homes. Police told the cleaning agency that solicitation is not allowed on the island.
Does not compute
4:03 p.m. — 2900 block of GMD. Civil Disturbance. A man called police after a computer technician kept harassing him for $150, which he refused to pay because the computer was not fixed to his satisfaction. Police contacted the computer guy and told him to take it up in small claims court.

Party or bust
5:44 p.m. — 100 block of North Shore Road. Code Enforcement. Police broke up a party full of teenagers on Greer Island and forced them to put out their fire, empty their keg of beer and clean up the area, which effectively killed their
buzz.

April 16
All locked up
2:24 a.m. — 100 block of GMD. Code Enforcement. Six people fishing behind the closed gate at Overlook Park were told that, well, the locked gate should have given them the impression that the park was not accepting visitors at such a late
hour.