Cops Corner: Sarasota

Sept. 1
Apology would be accepted
3:30 p.m. — 1500 block of Main Street. Battery. A woman told police a drunken man tried to kiss her outside a bar and grabbed her arms roughly when she tried to get away. The incident occurred a week ago, and she said she reported it now because the man will not apologize to her for his actions.

Sept. 2
Search patrol
6:30 p.m. — 2000 block of Main Street. Drug Possession. Police located a woman accused of stealing items in a grocery store and took her to jail. A thorough search of her purse revealed she was also in possession of a yellow football-shaped pill in a cellophane wrapper, a silver kitchen spoon with a burn mark on the bottom of it and a yellow-and-white straw.

Sept. 3
Punch drunk
2:40 a.m. — 1400 block of Main Street. Fight. Two men got into a fight outside a bar. Both men were drunk and argumentative, and police were unable to obtain enough information to pursue the incident further.

That’s not on the house
6:30 p.m. — 1700 block of Main Street. Theft. The owner of a restaurant told police a man fled without paying his $153.22 bill. Another customer at the restaurant told police he overheard the man say he was going to another restaurant down the street. Police found him there, and he explained he didn’t pay the bill because the owner owed him $400. The owner denied the claim but said she wouldn’t press charges if he paid for the meal. He didn’t have enough money to pay for the tab — and she pressed charges.

No more late-night snacks
11:45 p.m. — 2500 block of North Orange Avenue. Suspicious Circumstance. Police found a man selling Jamaican food out of a white box truck after 10 p.m., which violates a city ordinance. He was sent packing.

Sept. 4
Final resting place?
10:35 a.m. — 700 block of Central Avenue. Suspicious Person. A woman told police that she observed a man walk up to the locked front door of a theater, where he left a small dead yellow parakeet in the dirt near the front door.

Payback problem
4 p.m. — 2700 block of Coconut Bay Lane. Theft. A woman told police that she believes her former best friend paid back a past due loan owed to her by stealing her jewelry from her bedroom and taking it to a pawn shop.

Sept. 7
Bothersome barking
12:04 a.m. — 1700 block of Ninth Street. Animal Nuisance. An anonymous neighbor told police she was “going to do something” to her neighbor’s dogs if they didn’t stop barking. The officer gave a warning to the dogs’ owner, who leaves the dogs outside at night, and stood by while he brought the dogs inside.

Disruptive visitor
2:30 p.m. — 100 block of South Pineapple Avenue. Tenant Dispute. A woman hit the alarm button in a hotel because a second woman was being disruptive in the lobby. Police calmed the second woman down and found out she was having a dispute with her landlord in Venice.

Doesn’t check out
4:05 p.m. — 600 block of North Lime Avenue. Suspicious Circumstance. A man told police that while he was in jail, his roommate forged a check in his name for $75 and cashed it when he got out of jail.

Sept. 8
Watch out
6:15 p.m. — 3100 block of Bee Ridge Road. Grand Theft. A storeowner reported a watch was stolen from the display case of his business. He believes it was stolen after one of his employees forgot to lock the case. The man turned over surveillance video to police.

Ransacked car
7:09 p.m. — 4300 block of Oak View Drive. Vehicle Burglary. A man told police he left his car unlocked overnight and found it “ransacked” in the morning. A $200 key fob was missing from the center console. The man waited too long to report the incident for police to recover fingerprints from the car.