Cops Corner: East County

The following information was gathered from incident and arrest reports obtained from the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office.

Feb. 23
Powder room pilfer
1:04 a.m. — 8300 block of Lockwood Ridge Road. Petit Theft. A shopper said she witnessed a woman take cosmetic and apparel items into a store restroom. Once inside the restroom, the woman removed the items from their packages and put them in her purse. Store employees found the empty packages in the restroom. The woman exited the store with the items, which set off the store alarm. She admitted to trying to steal the items, which totaled $147.60. The woman was banned from the property.

Feb. 24
Sick and ‘tire’d
10:37 p.m. — 4500 block of Dover Street Circle E. Suspicious Incidents. A woman was relaxing on her pool deck when she heard rustling in the pepper trees near her home, a common sign of illegal dumping. The county frequently cleans up tires and televisions in this area. The woman walked to the area and found two people sitting in a truck. She found one tire on the ground by the pepper trees and three others in the bed of the truck. One of the truck’s occupants said he was picking up the tires to sell them. The woman believes the duo was dumping, though she didn’t witness it. The truckers drove off, leaving the one tire behind.

Feb. 25
Privacy, please
5:06 p.m. — 11110 block of Third Avenue E. Fraud. A man reported an unknown person obtained his personal bank account information and made an unauthorized transaction.

Feb. 27
money ‘laundry-ing’
12:40 a.m. — 6700 block of State Road 70 E. Petit Theft. A vacationer withdrew $500 from a bank and put the money in his car. The vacationer had his car cleaned, and, afterward, he noticed the money sticking out of his checkbook. The vacationer discovered he was missing $200. He contacted the car wash and its employees and found out theft has been a recent problem at the car wash.

Gotta eat
12:42 a.m. — 8300 block of Lockwood Ridge Road. Petit Theft. A shopper entered a grocery store and pulled several items from the shelf and filled his shopping cart. An employee put the shopper under surveillance. The shopper then exited the store without paying for the items. The employee tried to confront the shopper outside, but the shopper resisted. A deputy secured the shopper, who tried to steal $152.81 of merchandise.

Unfinished business
1:25 p.m. — 6900 13th Avenue E. Theft. A woman said she and her family gave a worker $1,100 to complete work on their home, but he never showed up.

Slice and dice
5:45 p.m. — 5000 block of Boston Common Glen. Petit theft. An unknown person(s) used sharp wire cutters to cut off six to eight feet of copper ground wire that was attached to the metal rebar of an unposted construction site. The dirt was very fine in the area, so the deputy could not find any shoe prints. There are no leads to follow up on and no physical evidence linking anyone to the crime.

Feb. 28
Call me never
7:23 p.m. — 9500 block of State Road 64 E. Lost property. A woman reported her young son lost his cellphone at school. The phone’s GPS tracking device indicates the phone is somewhere in the Citris Meadows area.