Cops Corner

April 26
Trash man nabbed
8 a.m. — 5800 block of South Tamiami Trail. Illegal Dumping. A homeowner drove to a cemetery and threw his household garbage, including paint cans, into its dumpster. The man’s name and address were on several items in the trash. A deputy tried to contact the man, but a neighbor told him he just gone on a cruise. The homeowner’s car was in the driveway, and the deputy noticed a blanket laid down in the back with remnants of garbage on it — the smoking gun. A cemetery manager planned to return the trash to its rightful owner.

Natural setting
3:23 p.m. — 700 block of Osprey Avenue. Suspicious Person. A naked woman was spotted near a pond. The police report states, "Naked F by pond in corner by cluster of palm trees."

Curbside service
4:31 p.m. — 3500 block of South Tamiami Trail. Suspicious Incident. A woman walked out of the shopping mall to see her SUV sitting up on the curb. She told police she thinks another vehicle may have pushed it up on the curb.

April 27
Persistent thief
6:30 a.m. — 1200 block of Old Stickney Point Road. Business Burglary. A restaurant manager arrived at work and noticed someone had broken into a locked liquor cooler. At first, the thief attempted to remove the cooler’s hinge pins with a screwdriver. When that didn’t work, he tried to unscrew the hinges, but they were tamper-proof. He then removed the wood pieces around the window-unit air conditioner and tried to remove the air conditioner. That didn’t work, either, so he focused on the cooler door’s locks. The marks he left showed that he tried to pry the door open several times before he was finally successful. He did manage to get inside the cooler, but the manager said nothing appeared to be missing.

Dinner’s on me
8:21 a.m. — 900 block of Beneva Road. Obtaining Goods by Fraudulent Use of Credit Card. A woman told police someone had obtained the number to her credit card and used it five times to purchase goods, even though she was still in possession of the card. Those charges included two trips to the same grocery store: once for $233.65 and the other for $305.09.

Attention to detail
10:07 a.m. — 6600 block of Gateway Avenue. Disturbance. The manager of an auto-detailing shop told the sheriff’s office that a customer arrived presumably to get his car detailed, but ended up getting into a heated argument with the manager. During the dispute, the manager said the customer walked to his car, grabbed a gun and put it in his waistband. He then showed the gun to the manager, who screamed several times, “Go ahead and shoot me.” The customer left before a deputy arrived, so the deputy called him on the phone, and he said he doesn’t own a gun. He said during the argument, he walked back to his car and the manager yelled at him, “You going back to your car and get a gun?” There were witnesses to the argument, but no one saw a gun. When the deputy told the manager of his findings, the manager took an argumentative tone with him. The deputy said if he continued to talk that way, he would leave. The manager told him because he wasn’t going to do anything, he should leave. So the deputy left.

April 28
Finders keepers
2:47 a.m. — 10 block of South Lime Avenue. Found Property. A caller told police that he found a gun behind a propane holding place. He did not see who left the gun there.