Top Cops of the Week

EAST COUNTY
Nov. 13
Something stinks here
5:11 a.m. — 1400 block of Millbrook Circle. Petit theft. The victim has partial custody of a child, who stays with her and his father. The victim noticed her bottle of mouthwash was taken. She explained to the deputy only one other person besides her has a key to the residence. There were no broken windows or pry marks on the doors or windows of the home. The victim has confronted the individual about the mouthwash, and that individual denied allegations. The victim requested a case number for her records.

Click here to read this week's East County Observer Cops Corner.

SARASOTA
Nov. 7
Refund policy
3:30 p.m. — 4000 block of South Tamiami Trail. Dispute. A woman got upset when an electronics store employee asked for her driver’s license to complete her refund transaction. She demanded to speak to a manager and began filming the employees because she said they were laughing at her. The woman screamed at an employee to stop touching her, when he shielded his face from the camera on her phone. The store’s surveillance video shows that no employee touched her, and there was no evidence to move forward.

Click here to read this week's Sarasota Observer Cops Corner.

LONGBOAT KEY
Nov. 6
Constructive criticism
1:17 p.m. — 500 block of Chipping Lane. Code Enforcement. Two men who were installing brick pavers agreed to leave the area after police advised them of an ordinance that prohibits construction work on Sundays. Police also confiscated one man’s suspended driver’s license.

Click here to read this week's Longboat Observer Cops Corner.

Oct. 26
Whom can you trust these days?
4:40 p.m. — 1200 block of Stickney Point Road. Petit Theft. A man reported that within a day or so of his move to Lakeland, he received a phone call from a woman who said she was with a bank on the Key. She told him someone had come into the bank to turn in the man’s debit card. No transactions had been reported for the card prior to the man’s receiving the phone call, and the man told a deputy he had not realized he had lost the card. Six days later, the man contacted the same woman bank officer to advise her to cancel the card, because he had no way to get back to Sarasota to retrieve it. When he went to a Lakeland branch of the bank the following day, he learned that numerous purchases had been made with the card the previous day and that the card still was active. The man asked an official at the Lakeland bank branch to cancel the card. The man said he suspected the female bank official on the Key had stolen his card number and used it to buy the items reported on the card’s account. The deputy concluded, “This requires further investigation.”

Click here to read this week's Pelican Press Cops Corner