WELCOME BACK: The best of Cops Corner

May 3
Caller has hang-ups
8:44 p.m. — 500 block of Ranger Lane. Harassment. A woman told police that a man keeps leaving her harassing voicemails, because he’s afraid she might tell his wife that they had been together.

May 4
The welcoming party
7:02 p.m. — 5700 block of GMD. Suspicious Circumstance. A man told police that while driving through Spanish Main Yacht Club, a man banged his fist on the side of his van as he drove around him in the middle of the road.

May 9
All fired up
12:50 p.m. — 500 block of Norton Street. Fire. A woman reported a possible trash fire in the back of a homeowner’s yard. Upon arrival, police found a woman spraying water on what had been a fire consisting of yard clippings. She told police she missed her yard trash pickup day and decided to burn her grass clippings. But the fire got bigger than she expected, and she put it out with the hose. The Fire Rescue Department responded to confirm the fire was out, and the woman was warned of the town’s ordinance preventing open fires.

May 11
Walk it off
5:41 p.m. — 100 block of Broadway. Disturbance. A beach project construction worker told police he exchanged punches with a drunken beachgoer who started swinging at him when the beachgoer was asked to walk around the construction zone. The beachgoer agreed to leave.

May 18
Photo finish
5:49 p.m. — 3400 block of GMD. Animal Nuisance. A man called police to report there was a snake under his couch in his living room. Police pulled the couch back and found a 2.5-foot black snake under the couch. The man, who was visiting from the United Kingdom, asked the officer to pose for a picture so he could share the experience with his friends back home. The snake was released in the woods after the photo-op.

June 5
Man of few words
10:21 a.m. — 400 block of L’Ambiance Drive. Phone Call. A woman told police that a man kept calling her and saying, “Yo!” before hanging up. Police left a message for the prankster and urged him to stop calling the woman.

June 13
When ya gotta go ...
1:03 a.m. — 4700 block of GMD. Suspicious Person. Police witnessed a drunken woman urinating in the parking lot of a hotel. She told police she had lost her room key. The front desk provided her with a new key so she could be more discreet in the comfort of her hotel room.

June 26
Give them a brake
9:21 a.m. — 3800 block of Gulf of Mexico Drive. Traffic Complaint. A resident flagged down police to report that a large group of bicyclists was riding in the south-bound traffic lane and impeding traffic. He said that a verbal altercation ensued after he blew his horn at them. The 12 riders told police that the resident had started the altercation by blowing his horn at them, pulling in front of them and braking, causing the riders to brake to avoid crashing. Both parties were given information about laws pertaining to bike lanes.

June 30
Night lights
9:31 p.m. — 700 block of St. Judes Drive North. Code Enforcement. A woman reported that a neighbor’s light was shining too brightly into her bedroom at night, which caused her not to be able to see the sunrise. The neighbor unscrewed the bulb and promised to dim the light.

July 17
The going weight?
9:56 a.m. Theft. A man took, and then returned, weights from his neighbor’s garage. The man said that the neighbor made threatening remarks after the weights were returned and had previously offered him an ounce of marijuana in exchange for the weights.

‘Extreme Couponing’:
The Longboat Key edition
3:40 p.m. — 6700 block of Gulf of Mexico Drive. Suspicious Circumstance. A man told police that two daily newspapers delivered to a box near his condominium no longer come with extra clip-out coupons and said that they might have been stolen because of a recent TV series glamorizing coupon use.

Aug. 5
Dogged detour
1:18 p.m. — 5500 block of GMD. Disturbance. A man told police that he observed large groups of Segway operators riding through a park and yelling to people walking dogs to move out of the path. The Segway company owner agreed to talk to guides about the issue.

Aug. 16
Mistaken identity
9:16 p.m. — 4400 block of GMD. Suspicious Person. A woman thought that a family member was knocking on her door but opened it to find a man she didn’t know wearing a bathing suit with no shirt. She told the man she didn’t know him, and he walked away, but several minutes later, she heard a louder knock and a voice saying, “Open the door.” The woman’s husband told the man that he did not know him and watched him walk toward the pool area.

Sept. 9
Spiritual battle
4:31 p.m. — 4700 block of GMD. Mental Case. A hotel manager reported a guest was behaving strangely and had turned over his salad plate onto a chair. The guest told police he was recently released from Manatee County Jail after he demanded that a store clerk install a LoJack chip inside his 10-year-old son; he said voices belonging to either Jesus Christ or the Boogeyman told him to do so. He also told police he was fighting the devil and if he ate poisoned mushrooms, “It would not look like suicide.”

Sept. 19
On the rum
11:17 p.m. — 7000 block of GMD. Suspicious Circumstance. A caller reported a reckless driver who was possibly armed with a handgun. The driver, who told police he wanted to punch himself in the head, was armed only with a half-empty bottle of Bacardi rum and an empty alcoholic beverage can.

Sept. 21
The smell of suspicion
8:06 a.m. — 3200 block of GMD. Suspicious Circumstance. A condominium maintenance supervisor reported that a resident noticed a “suspicious person” who “had a bad odor about him” the week earlier. The supervisor told police that he has noticed items such as toilet paper and air fresheners missing from the pool bathrooms and suspects that a person could be living in the nearby wooded area.

Sept. 28
Cracking the (area) code
12:06 p.m. — 3400 block of Dock on the Bay. Accidental Call. A woman told police that she must have accidentally dialed 911 while attempting to dial her primary residence’s 919 area code.

Sept. 29
White of way
7:34 a.m. — 700 block of Marbury Lane. Vandalism. A woman reported that an unknown person spattered white paint on her driveway and on plants in front of her house.

Oct. 17
Planted evidence?
2:24 a.m. — 5200 block of GMD. Narcotics Violation. Police pulled over a woman whom they warned a few minutes earlier not to drive because of a suspended license. The woman said she didn’t know why her vehicle had an improper tag, because her mother took care of it. She also suspected that her ex-boyfriend put the marijuana bag and glass pipe police spotted in her purse.