Cops Corner: Sarasota

Oct. 27
Bathroom etiquette
5:30 p.m. — 2800 block of Ringling Boulevard. Suspicious Person. A pizza parlor employee called police to report a man had been in the restaurant’s bathroom for a half-hour. The employee told police the man was banging on the door while he was inside and then walked out and yelled at her before leaving. Police found the man, who told police he had to go to the bathroom really badly and that people kept pounding on the door while he was inside. He told police he was only in there for 10 minutes. He was told not to go back to the pizza parlor ever again.

Oct. 28
No game-playing
1:15 a.m. — 1300 block of Cocoanut Avenue. Theft. A woman reported that someone stole her Playstation after she took it to someone’s home in an attempt to sell it.

Oct. 29
Additional expenses
2:12 p.m. — 5000 block of North Tamiami Trail. Civil Dispute. A blind homeless man told police he believes a hotel employee made unauthorized charges on his credit card after he spent a night there. Police approached hotel staff, who explained that he agreed to and signed paperwork for a room that included a $100 extra charge for smoking in a non-smoking room. Staff explained that he was also charged an additional $100 for ruining a bedspread that was now covered in cigarette burns.

Middle of the road
3:30 p.m. — 1000 block of South Orange Avenue. Illegal Parking. A man called police because he was sick of his neighbor’s lawn service parking its truck and trailer on the median. He said it was damaging his sprinklers. The crew was asked to park somewhere else in the future.

Sorting it all out
5:30 p.m. — 1500 block of Cocoanut Avenue. Family Dispute. A woman told police that a man was going through trash from a previous tenant she had put outside. The man told police he would clean up the mess he made from going through the trash.

Devoted drummer
6:30 p.m. — 2300 block of Sixth Street. Noise Violation. An anonymous complaint was lodged against a woman who told police she was in the middle of a religious celebration, in which drums are used before and after each prayer. She told police the ritual would be complete by 7:15 p.m., and police told her they would end the ritual if it didn’t cease at the agreed upon time.

Oct. 30
Uninvited guests
12:05 a.m. — 4800 block of North Tamiami Trail. Trespassing. A hotel employee called police because a guest kept inviting several different men to her hotel room, which is not permitted. She was trespassed from the location.

No longer welcome
12:29 a.m. — 1900 block of Fifth Street. Dispute. A woman called police to report that the homeowner of the house in which she was staying struck her in the face during an argument. A witness, however, said there was no physical violence and that the woman deliberately picked at her face to create a cut before police arrived. The woman agreed to leave with her infant child, and police gave them a ride to another friend’s house.

Coach me through this
1:50 a.m. — 1400 block of Main Street. Theft. A woman told police that during a fight with another woman at a bar, she lost her black Coach purse that contained her iPhone, keys, driver’s license and credit cards. The intoxicated woman told police she thought the other woman stole it. The other woman denied stealing her purse and allowed police to search her for the belongings. It’s unclear if the purse was stolen
or lost.

Oct. 31
Branching out
2:44 a.m. — 2100 block of Waldemere Street. Suspicious Circumstance. A man told police he heard his car alarm going off, but police couldn’t locate anyone in the area. Something blowing in the air may have tripped the alarm, because the car was parked under a tree.

Phoning it in
1:30 p.m. — 300 block of North Orange Avenue. Disorderly Conduct. An elderly man with poor eyesight told police he was talking on a pay phone at a gas station when he got into a fight with a man. When the elderly man asked him to be quiet, he told the man he was going to “shove his cane where the sun doesn’t shine” and continued to follow him around the property. Police could not locate the man.

Nov. 1
Slasher film
1:49 a.m. — 2500 block of Cocoanut Avenue. Criminal Mischief. A woman told police that she left her Halloween party and discovered all four of her car’s tires had been slashed. Prints were lifted from the car, and the suspect is believed to be another woman at the party who tried to pick a fight with the woman earlier in the night.