Cops Corner

Oct. 8
Unfurnished apartment for rent
12:01 a.m. — 2700 block of Cocoanut Bay Lane. Theft. An apartment owner was evicting a tenant because she didn’t pay her rent. The tenant told the owner that she would be moving out and was having a friend help move her stuff. What the owner didn’t know is that the two were also taking the owner’s stuff. Several pieces of furniture were missing. The owner thinks the tenant took the items to furnish her new place.

Oct. 9
Don’t call us …
12:43 p.m. — 400 block of John Ringling Boulevard. Petit Theft. A woman picked out a pair of shorts on a hanger to try on in a dressing room, and she also took a pair of shorts into a corner of the store and shoved them in her purse. The woman went into the dressing room and came out with a used pair of shorts on the hanger and gave them to a store employee. She then headed toward the exit, but before she walked out the door, she asked for a job application and filled it out. The woman was told to come back a few days later for an interview. She did. But store employees invited someone else to be there for the interview — a police officer. The woman was arrested.

Oct. 11
Cold shoulder
9:30 a.m. — 200 block of Lime Avenue. Suspicious Person. A store employee called police to report a man standing outside watching the store, wearing winter clothes. That may not have been all that suspicious this past Monday, but on the day this happened it was 92 degrees.

Oct. 12
Nudist retreat
1:51 a.m. — 6700 block of Sarasea Circle. Disorderly Conduct. A woman staying at a motel went to do her laundry in the community laundry room. She walked in the room and saw a naked man lying on his back on the floor. She called 911, and when a sheriff’s deputy arrived, the man was still there, still on the floor, still naked. He was not a guest at the motel. The manager said he had been loitering on the property for the past week and had been harassing customers.

Siren song
9:32 p.m. — Bayfront Park. General Suspicion. A woman on a houseboat told police she heard a woman crying and asking for help. She said the voice was coming from a direction where there were no boats and feared the woman might be in the water. The woman’s husband searched the water, but didn’t find anything. Rescue workers also searched, but again there was no sign of a woman in the water. The woman said she didn’t hear the voice anymore.

Oct. 14
Card shark
Midnight — 1900 Marcia Street. Petit Theft. A woman reported someone had stolen her library card. She may not have noticed the theft, but she received a $124 fine from the library for an unreturned movie that she never borrowed.