Cops Corner: East County

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

Oct. 22
 Phone tag
6:41 p.m. — 4100 block of 53rd Avenue E. Theft. A man reported his cell phone was stolen at the post office while he picked up his mail. He had put down the phone while he checked his mail and when he returned, it was gone. The man called his cell phone from a separate landline phone. An unknown woman answered the cell phone. The man told the woman the cell phone was his. The woman said he was wrong and hung up the phone. Around 15 minutes later, the woman called the landline phone from which the man had called. The woman called to tell the man to stop calling her. She hung up. The man called his cell phone provider and shut down the phone.

Oct. 24
 Battery charged
1:38 p.m. — 2900 block of 53rd Avenue E. Theft. A man attempted to return a set of car headlights at the customer service desk inside a department store; he was denied because he did not have a receipt. The man, who drove to the store by bicycle, returned to the bicycle and returned to the store wearing a jacket with the headlights hidden inside it. He then got a shopping cart and selected four sets of rechargeable batteries to put inside it. He then grabbed baby formula from a shelf. He put the formula in the cart and removed the batteries from the cart, putting them in his pants pocket. He returned one of the battery packs to the shelf. At the cash register, he attempted to pay only for the baby formula. He walked outside the store without paying for $65.01 worth of batteries. Store staff stopped the man. The man was arrested. He later admitted he had stolen the headlights from an auto shop.

High life 
8:09 p.m. — 10900 block of State Road 70 E. Confiscated Property. A deputy responded to a report of a vehicle parked by a closed business. Upon arrival, a deputy observed the vehicle still was warm. The deputy walked toward the business and saw three men approach him from the woods. The men ran away. The deputy yelled, “Stop!” The three men then returned. They admitted they had marijuana inside the parked vehicle. The deputy notified the parents of the three men. The parents picked them up without incident.

Oct. 25
 Photographic evidence
7:10 p.m. — 3400 block of 71st Avenue E. Theft. A woman reported her cell phone stolen four days after it went missing. On the day it went missing, the woman had a sleepover with friends. The next morning, she learned through social media that her sister’s friend had the phone. The sister’s friend had posted pictures of herself with the phone. The woman took a picture of the posted picture as evidence. The phone, including its pink case, is valued at $250.