Cops Corner: Sarasota

January 9
DÉJÀ VU
9:42 a.m. — 1500 block of Boulevard of the Arts. Dispute/Fight. A man registered a complaint about transient individuals causing a disturbance in the area, hanging on his fence and knocking the wooden slats down. The officer informed the man that he was in the area when the call came, and that he didn’t see any transient individuals in the area. The man said the incident occurred 10 minutes before he called. When the officer said there was nothing he could do at that point because the subjects had left the scene, the man was upset, comparing the officer negatively to other officers who have responded to similar complaints in the past.

EQUIPMENT FAILURE
5:30 p.m. — 1100 block of Ritz Carlton Drive. Theft — From Building/$300 to $2,000. Two men running a conference discovered that one of their audio-visual projectors had been taken overnight from a ballroom at a hotel. Hotel staff reported that the ballroom was not locked overnight, because the company running the conference did not request it to be secured. Security agreed to review surveillance footage that would show anyone who entered or exited the ballroom.

Jan. 10
SHOW STOPPER
4:18 p.m. — 2600 block of Pine Lake Terrace. Landlord/Tenant Dispute. A woman who was planning to move out of her apartment at the end of the month got in an argument with her landlord regarding an open house at the apartment. The woman did not want her landlord in her apartment for four hours, because they do not get along. An officer informed the woman that, per her lease, she did not have to let her landlord stay in the apartment for the entire time, but that the landlord should be allowed to show the apartment to prospective tenants as they arrived.

January 11
CLEAN GETAWAY
9:59 a.m. — 1900 block of Fruitville Road. Petit Theft — All Other. The manager of a drug store reported that a man entered the store, took two large bottles of laundry detergent and walked out of the store without paying three minutes later. The bottles were valued at $24.99 each. The manager reported that the man has committed thefts in the past from the same store, all of which have been reported. He said the thefts were becoming a regular occurrence with the man. Officers ran the license plate the manager provided but were unable to locate the suspect.

OPEN AND SHUT CASE
6 p.m. — 3400 block of Winton Avenue. Burglary — Vehicle/Vessel Unarmed. A woman called officers after her car was burglarized. She said she got home and left her car unlocked in her driveway; she forgot to grab her purse because she was tending to her child at the time. When she was inside her residence, she thought she heard a door open and shut, but she didn’t think anything of it at the time. When she went back to the car to retrieve her purse, she discovered it was gone, along with her child’s diaper bag.

FAUX PAS
7:26 p.m. — 1400 block of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Way. Counterfeit Currency. The owner of a grocery store alerted officers that a woman tried to purchase a can of beer with a fake $100 bill. The woman who attempted to make the purchase remained at the store to speak with officers. She told the officers that she had found the bill in the parking lot and believed it to be genuine. Based on previous interactions with the woman, the officers believed she was being honest, and the storeowner did not wish to prosecute the woman.