Cops Corner: Sarasota

Aug. 30
Not a good idea
3:30 a.m. — 3300 block of N Tamiami Trail. Suspicious Persons. An officer made contact with three men in front of an ATM. When the officer asked one of the men if he knew the two other men waiting on the curb, he told him they are friends he met at the bar and that they told him they were homeless and needed a place to stay for the night. The man told them can stay with him for the night. However, the man did not know the names of the two other men, and had never met them before. Officer asked the man if he really thought it was a good idea to have two strangers he has never met stay at his house. The man agreed it was not a good idea.

Sept. 2
A MAN WALKS INTO A BAR ...
11:00 p.m. — 1400 block of Main Street. Battery. A transient man walked into a bar and asked for matches. A bartender asked the man to leave, and the man became irate and spit on the bartender’s arm. The man then walked outside, where officers found him sitting on the sidewalk. The man began to make racial slurs toward the officer before the officer arrested him.

SEPT. 4
TALL DRINK OF BEER
1:15 a.m. — 300 block South Pineapple Avenue. Trespass. An officer on bike patrol spotted a man drinking from a 16-ounce can of beer. The officer issued a summons to the man and a written trespass warning, which the man refused to sign.

FLEEING THE SCENE
7:30 a.m. — Intersection of Shade Avenue and Tami Sola Street. Hit and Run. A driver stepped on the gas at a stop sign before another car had cleared the intersection. The driver crashed into the other car, causing significant damage to the other car’s side door before fleeing the scene.

Sept 5.
SLEEPING IN THE BUFF
10:51 a.m. — 10th Street. Unclassified. Someone stopped police to tell them about a male lying in a driveway with his pants down. The officer found the man lying there, in the driveway, with no shirt and his pants at his ankles.

YOU SNITCH
2:40 p.m. — Bayfront Drive. Dispute/Fight. A woman called a man a snitch and threatened to beat him up. It seemed that the pair were involved in some sort of dispute about narcotics activity. When police arrived, the two were already separated.

LIVING SPACE
8:48 p.m. – 1800 block of Main Street. Dispute/Fight. A passersby called police about three men panhandling and bothering customers. Upon arrival, an officer contacted the three homeless men and told one of them he cannot have his items spread out on the sidewalk by the fountain. The officer explained that he was called by passersby and that the men shouldn’t have their items spread out as if it were their living room. Two of the men became belligerent and stated that they were going to see the police captain and the chief of police and complain. The officer told the men that was their choice, but they needed to collect their items and move on.

Sept. 6
WHAT’S THAT NOISE?
12:09 a.m. — 2400 block of Bay Street. Suspicious Noise. A resident called police after hearing a suspicious noise outside. An officer checked outside the house, without finding anything out of place. The officer also checked the home for any signs of entry and did not find any. The residence is surrounded by trees and brush, and the noise could have come from foliage or an animal.

Crushed Cardboard dreams
2:10 a.m. — 1400 block 10th Street. Lodging Out-of-Doors. An officer walked up to a woman sleeping outside the Salvation Army. She was using crushed cardboard boxes as bedding and was covered in a blanket. The officer issued the woman a warning for lodging out of doors and called The Salvation Army to get her a bed inside.

Abandoned Abode
4:25 a.m. — 2700 bock of Arlington Street. Code Enforcement. A resident flagged down a passing officer and told him about a vacant home. The house appeared to have been abandoned for some time. The officer requested code enforcement come back to check the house for several code violations and to see if the home has been abandoned.

SHEDDING SOME LIGHT
6:45 a.m. — 900 block of 47th Street. Suspicious Incident. A woman told police that she thinks she heard someone break into her shed, but police checked the area and did not find anyone. The woman has had problems with shed break-ins in the past.