Cops Corner

Dec. 12
Teach her a lesson
4 p.m. — 8200 block of South Tamiami Trail. Retail Theft. A 14-year-old girl in a department store was caught stuffing an anklet and ring into her pocket. The total value of the items was $85. A security guard caught her and held her until deputies arrived. The girl said she took the jewelry simply because she wanted them and did not consider the consequences. Her mother was called, and she told deputies to arrest her daughter.

Forget me not
10:45 p.m. — 5200 block of Ocean Boulevard. Miscellaneous Officer. A woman called the sheriff’s office to report her car had been stolen. She had been inside a bar since 2 p.m. and decided to go outside and check on her vehicle. When she walked outside, she could not find it. She said she remembered locking it, and she still had the keys. Two hours later, she called the sheriff’s office again. One of her friends had moved her car to another parking spot and forgot to tell her. She obviously forgot she lent her keys to the friend.

Easy as 1, 2, 3
6:49 p.m. — 400 block of Beach Road. Driving Under the Influence. A sheriff’s deputy pulled over a driver who failed to dim his high-beams and made an illegal pass. The deputy immediately realized the driver was drunk — so drunk, in fact, that he was swaying while sitting in his seat. The man failed each sobriety test. But his worst performance was counting backwards from 49 to 21. His version went like this: 49, 47, 49, 46, 45, 43, 40, 41, 45, 43, 41, 40, 29, 36, 39, 38, 37, 33, 32, 31, 29, 28, 27, 26, 25, 24, 23, 22, 21, 20.

Dec. 13
Final babysitting job
6 p.m. — 8200 block of South Tamiami Trail. Suspicious Incident. A young woman was watching a friend’s 2-year-old at a mall, while the child’s mother stepped outside for a cigarette. The woman reported that while she was walking with the child toward the food court, a man walked up to them, grabbed the child’s arm and tried to take her away. Sheriff’s deputies searched the mall but could not find anyone matching the description. The sheriff’s helicopter was even called out to search the surrounding area. Then, the young woman admitted that she lied about the abduction. She said she panicked for some unknown reason and made up the story.

Broken arm
11:24 a.m. — Siesta Drive. Careless Driving. An elderly man was driving over a drawbridge. He apparently didn’t see that the gate arms had been lowered. The man rammed his pickup truck into the arm and broke it. Luckily, the bridge had not yet begun to rise.

Dec. 16
Powder room
12:30 a.m. — 4100 block of Cochise Terrace. Suspicious Incident. A woman reported someone rang her doorbell. She didn’t answer or look out the window to see who it was. In the morning, she noticed a tan-colored powder on her front step, front windows and shrubs. The woman said she isn’t having problems with anyone.

Hands off
9:12 a.m. — 1900 block of South Orange Avenue. Disorderly Conduct. A father reported an adult woman confronted his young son about an incident that occurred on a school bus. The father said the woman was upset, because his son had inadvertently touched her daughter’s leg. The father warned the mother not to have any other contact with his son and to instead discuss her concerns with him.

Rotten to the core
Noon — 200 block of North Lime Avenue. Disorderly Conduct. A grocery-store manager said he saw a man take a case of rotten apples out of the dumpster behind the store and try to sell them in the parking lot.