Cops Corner: Longboat Key

Sept. 13
Dine and dash
2:50 p.m. — 4700 block of GMD. Larceny from Motel. A manager reported that a couple left the hotel bar without paying their tab and drove away in a black Porsche. Police were unable to find the vehicle but checked the vehicle registration through the license-plate number the manager provided and found that the Porsche owners are a Tarpon Springs couple. After police showed him the couple’s driver’s license photos, the manager said he believed the man was involved but not the woman. Police contacted the woman, who said that she no longer lives in Florida. She provided him with the man’s phone number.

Tennis, anyone?
4 p.m. — 1600 block of GMD. Suspicious Circumstance. A caller reported that an unknown person had possibly entered into the former tennis staff office of a shuttered resort. Police found a large handprint on the office window and a broken alcoholic beverage bottle inside the office. Police did not attempt to enter or obtain fingerprints because of a large wasp nest and couldn’t determine whether people or severe weather had caused damage to doors and windows reported at other parts of the property.

Lost at sea
10:33 p.m. — 100 block of N. Shore Road. Missing Person. A man and his friend were returning to a beach access from Greer Island when the man noticed that his friend, who had been drinking all day, was no longer with him. After a foot search, police found him sleeping in the mangroves. The man had no medical complaints and said he planned to keep sleeping until daylight.

Sept. 14
No quick fix
6:44 p.m. — 7100 block of Longboat Drive N. Property Damage. A woman went to her window after hearing a loud noise. She noticed a red car in front of her house and that her mailbox had been knocked down. Police found a vehicle parked nearby with the driver’s side door open and the windows down. Police couldn’t find damage on the vehicle or locate the car’s owner. The mailbox owner didn’t want the driver to get in trouble but just wanted her mailbox fixed.

Sept. 16
No man left behind?
6:57 a.m. — 200 block of Sands Point Road. Suspicious Person. Resort staff reported that a suspicious man was walking around the property. The man said that he had been at a party with friends in Sarasota County then came to Longboat Key to go fishing. His friends apparently left him behind, and he was trying to find a ride home. Police gave him a ride to Sarasota.

Sept. 17
Sour grapes
9:24 a.m. — 5800 block of GMD. Vandalism. A man reported that a neighboring resort had cut his sea grapes low and left the plantings behind. He said that the resort had trimmed his trees previously and, when confronted, had agreed not to do so in the future confronted. Police left a voice message asking the property’s management company to contact them.

Battery charges
Police arrested two Longboat Key men Sept. 8 on battery charges after a taxi driver alleged that they assaulted him during a disagreement.

Leopold Tamba told police that he picked up Kelly Sullivan, Tyrone Mcnamara and Louise Filmer, all of 500 Schooner Lane, from downtown Sarasota and who agreed to be driven to the BP station on the Key for $15. Tamba told police that when he tried to drop them off there, the group became angry and demanded he drive them to their Schooner Lane home.

Tamba said that he began to suspect that he was being set up for a theft after the men made threatening remarks and demanded that the group get out of the car.

Sullivan then allegedly struck Tamba in his jaw area with a beer bottle before he and Mcnamara began punching Tamba with their fists with Tamba punching them back. Tamba told police that Filmer tried to pull the men apart but then she began punching him as well.

Dry Dock Restaurant employees broke up the fight but did not see how it started.

Sullivan told police that he didn’t remember what happened, while Mcnamara said that Tamba began yelling at them when asked to drive them further and then exited the vehicle and began battering them.

Filmer told police that she attempted to break up the fight and gave police $15 to give to Tamba for the ride. Sullivan and Mcnamara were arrested on battery charges.

Tamba told police that he went to the hospital four days after the incident because of jaw pain and learned that he sustained a fractured left cheekbone.