Cops Corner

Aug. 30
Life on the run
9:20 a.m. — Siesta Drive and South Osprey Avenue. Suspicious Person. A car dealership has been trying to find a particular vehicle for five months, so it can repossess it. A repo man spotted the vehicle at the above intersection. The driver noticed that she was being followed and ran a red light to get away. The repo man was unable to follow her any further.

Aug. 31
BOLO for guitar hero
12:21 p.m. — 1300 block of First Street. General Suspicion. A woman allowed her grandson to use her library card. He told her that he lost the card there, and the woman canceled the card. A couple of weeks later, a library employee told the woman that someone used her card to borrow the following books, CDs and DVDs:

• Beginning Rock Lead Guitar
• Blues/Roots Guitar
• Neil Young video
• The Guitar Makers Workshop
• Guitar Making, Tradition and Technique

The employee said the items were checked out before the card was canceled, so the grandson probably has the items. He is now back home in Pennsylvania. If he ends up on tour with Mötley Crüe, the case may be solved.

Pooling their resources
12:50 p.m. — 3200 block of Ramblewood Drive. Suspicious Incident. Someone reported the people who live behind an apartment complex cut a hole in the fence, so they could climb through and use the pool.

Don’t forget to tip your waitress
7:10 p.m. — 1700 block of Main Street. Petit Theft. A man ran into a pizza place, grabbed the tip jar off the counter and ran away. The restaurant has surveillance cameras and may have captured the thief’s face.

Sept. 1
Health care crisis
1:55 p.m. — 1300 block of South Tamiami Trail. Trespassing. A supermarket employee stopped two teenage girls after they took two bandages from a box. Apparently they know the importance of immediately keeping a cut from getting infected. Each girl was issued a trespass warning.

That must be some chair
3:42 p.m. — 700 block of Central Avenue. Theft. A photographer asked the owner of a furniture store if he could borrow a designer chair for a photo shoot. Because he had loaned furniture to photographers in the past, the owner agreed. That was in December 2008. Since that time, the store owner has contacted the photographer several times, and each time the photographer said he would be returning the chair soon.

But, recently, the photographer halted communications. The store owner spoke with a mutual acquaintance, who said the photographer may have moved to New York. If so, he’s got a start on furnishing his new place.

The old back-up-the-chair ploy
7:45 p.m. — 4100 block of South Tamiami Trail. Petit Theft. A woman at a restaurant placed her purse on the back of her chair while she dined. A group of men sat down at an adjacent table, and one of the men backed up his chair to hers. The men only ordered sodas and then left a short time later. When the woman went to pay her bill, she noticed that her wallet was missing from her purse. A waitress said the men left without paying for their drinks. Hard to believe a group of thieves would skip out on a bill.