Cops Corner: Sarasota 4.6.17

April 2

MAKING A MESS
12:34 p.m. — 4800 block of North Tamiami Trail
Property damage: The assistant manager of a hotel reported an incident that resulted in property damage. Officers met with the manager, who said a guest who rented a hotel room destroyed property within the room. The person who rented the room was gone when officers arrived. The officers found a broken television, remote control and toilet paper holder. The burners on the stove were disconnected, and the room was generally messy, with food containers, dirty towels and food strewn about. There were no witnesses to the incident. Officers told hotel employees to call again if the guest returned to the property.

GOT A HUNCH
2 p.m. — 400 block of East Cornelius Circle
Property damage: A man reported that someone scratched his car's paint with a key for the second time in two days. He did not see the person who did it, but he believed his ex-girlfriend was responsible. He recently saw her, and she appeared cold and ignored him, he said. He did not have any other evidence linking her to the crime. Nobody in the neighborhood reported that they saw the incident take place.

April 3

PAINT THE TOWN
7 a.m. — 0 block of North Central Avenue
Property damage: An employee at a commercial building called police to report property damage. An officer made contact with the employee, who pointed out graffiti on the window of a real estate office on the corner of the building. The officer saw what appeared to be the letters M, D and L written in pink spray paint on the window. The employee said the incident took place some time over the weekend. She said there was a trash can nearby that had the same graffiti, which appeared a week earlier. The employee said the graffiti would get cleaned off the window, but she wanted the incident documented. An officer informed a city public works officer about the graffiti on the trash can.

SPRING BROKEN
8 a.m. — 800 block of Benjamin Franklin Drive
Property damage: An officer responded to a hotel following a report of vandalism. The property manager at the hotel said sometime overnight, someone broke three LED lights on the property. The lights were installed within the landscaping at the hotel. The manager said the lights were worth about $150 each. He said nothing else was damaged, but the someone also turned off a water valve near the lights. He said there were no surveillance cameras on the property, and he could not find any witnesses. The manager believes the suspect was likely a guest visiting on spring break.