Top Cops of the Week

PELICAN PRESS
Oct. 19
You really don’t have to tell us twice
12:51 a.m. — 7300 block of Point of Rocks Road. Suspicious Incident. A homeless man reported that the owner of a vacant house under renovation had given him permission to sleep outside the house because problems earlier had occurred on the property. Two 21-year-old men and a 19-year-old came onto the property and walked around the wooden fence that separates it from an adjoining property’s clubhouse. When they walked up to the house, the homeless man confronted them. They ran away from him, then went around the fence again. The homeless man reported that he saw the three young men kick the wooden fence to get through it. The responding deputy found boards missing from the fence. However, the deputy said if the men had kicked the boards to get through the fence, the boards would have split or broken. The deputy found the boards near the fence in good condition; they just needed to be nailed back in place. The three young men said they knew the previous owner of the residence and had received permission from that person to fish on the property as well as to use it as a cut-through to the adjacent property. The men denied having taken the boards off the fence. The deputy contacted the current homeowner, who said he did not want the three young men on the property. The deputy warned them not to trespass again. The deputy also told the young men to stay away from the house because it was unsafe

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SARASOTA
Oct. 18
Dishonest Abe
12:28 p.m. — 5300 block of Fruitville Road. Felony. A woman reported that a customer had attempted to use a $50 bill that contained images of both President Abraham Lincoln and President Ulysses S. Grant. The clerk confiscated the bill, and the customer paid with a bill that had only one president’s image on it.

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EAST COUNTY
Oct. 28
3:30 p.m. — 5300 block of 30th Street East. Grand theft. The complainant forgot his iPad in his shopping cart. He left the area and noticed later that it was gone. While he was gone, an employee collecting shopping carts found the case of the iPad and turned it into lost and found. The complainant returned and went directly to lost and found only to learn his iPad was not returned. He located the iPad using his cell phone. The responding deputy went to the area but found nothing.

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LONGBOAT KEY
Oct. 25
Hit me with your best shot
3:10 p.m. — 600 block of Cedars Court. Battery. Two brothers got in a fight with their uncle after accepting his dare to steal a steal a shot from an outdoor bar. The shot-stealer said that his uncle punched him, and he then pushed his uncle to the ground. The man said that his uncle bit his right thumb. A witness told police that both brothers instigated the incident. Police arrested both men for domestic violence and handcuffed one man to a gurney while he was transported to a hospital for treatment. Police also completed a probable-cause affidavit charging their uncle, who was also transported to a hospital, with domestic violence. The men had been drinking all afternoon.

Click here to read Longboat Observer's Cops Corner.