Cops Corner: Longboat Key

Aug. 7
Caught red-handed
1:13 a.m. —1600 block of GMD. Trespassing. Police discovered several teenagers on an abandoned, fenced-in property after noticing flashlight beams. The teens were arrested after the site’s manager said he wished to press charges. After several failed attempts to reach the teens’ legal guardians, the youths were taken to Sarasota County Jail to be processed.

Aug. 14
Candid camera
9:00 a.m. — 5700 block of GMD. Traffic. License cameras notified dispatch about a vehicle with expired license plates that entered the island. When police stopped the driver, they found he also had a suspended driver’s license. The driver received a citation and parked his vehicle at the scene for later pickup.

Aug. 15
Vacant van
12:16 p.m. — 400 block of GMD. Suspicious Vehicle. Police observed a red van with a homemade license plate tag parked in a lot. When police ran the tag number, they found it belonged to a Jeep. No one was located near the van, and its back hatch was open; a bed was inside. Police found the names both vehicles were registered under but left the scene when the area around the vehicle appeared to be vacant.

Mac or PC?
9:43 p.m. — 2000 block of Harbourside Drive. Harassing Phone Call. An unknown caller who claimed to represent Microsoft security contacted a man and told him his computer had been hacked and that he needed to send money to fix the problem. The man, who uses a Mac computer, hung up the phone and called police about a possible scam call. Police were unable to locate the caller.

Aug. 16
Car camping
12:47 p.m. — 6800 block of GMD. Suspicious Person. Police observed a vehicle parked in a shopping center after hours and found a man asleep inside the vehicle. The officer woke up the man, who had just moved to the area to start work, and advised him to stay elsewhere.

Stolen snakeskin
3:59 p.m. — 5800 block of GMD. Larceny. A resort employee reported a snakeskin purse containing less than $2 in change, an iPhone charger, an external battery and eyeliner was stolen from a housekeeping storage room. The room was unlocked and unattended when the theft was thought to have occurred. When police arrived, they could not locate the items or surveillance video.

Safe and sound
9:43 p.m. — 3100 block of GMD. Assist Outside Agency. When a woman’s neighbors hadn’t heard from her in a few days, they became worried and called police to investigate. The initial call was to a neighboring department, and when police were dispatched to the area where the woman was thought to be, they found her safe and unaware anyone had been looking for her.

Aug. 17
Bad break
2:22 p.m. — 400 block of GMD. Burglary. A woman reported her car was broken into while she was at work and $500 was taken from her center console. She told police she might have forgotten to lock her doors after an evening break, and she believed the theft occurred between 4 and 10:20 p.m. Police were unable to obtain fingerprints, and there were no security cameras on the property.

Hit and run
5:46 p.m. — 200 block of Sands Point Road. Property Damage. A woman called police when she found scratch marks across her parked vehicle. Several delivery vehicles and garbage trucks were in the area at the time, but the officer had no luck finding the culprit when he inspected surrounding vehicles.

Aug. 18
Wake-up call
4:30 p.m. — Bay. Boat. Police observed a watercraft operator creating a wake in a no-wake zone. When the officer approached the boater after he stopped, he immediately began to argue he had not broken the law. The man received a citation for speeding but said he would fight the ticket in court.

Aug. 20
skimming scam
11:39 p.m. — 600 block of Old Compass Road. Fraud/Identity Theft. A woman believes her credit card information was stolen at a Bradenton Beach convenience store, where an illegal credit card-skimming device was recently discovered at a fuel pump. She called police after discovering three fraudulent transactions, all from a Tampa Walmart that totaled just under $200. She has also received phone calls that she believes are related. Police told her to file a complaint with Bradenton Beach police.

Aug. 21
following the rules
11:46 a.m. — 600 block of Longview Drive. Code Enforcement. A man told police his neighbor might be renting his home more frequently than town codes allow. The neighbor said he rents the home occasionally on a weekly basis but never more than once a month. He told police he is familiar with town codes and adheres to them.

underwater loan
4:03 p.m. — 2600 block of Harbourside Drive. Unsecured Boat. A marina manager called police about an abandoned vessel. He said the owner’s slip went into foreclosure. Police told him they would seek information from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.