Man claims he 'owns the road,' wants construction workers fined

Saturday, Nov. 30

The wife who wandered away

2:36 p.m., 500 block of Sanctuary Drive

Missing Person: Dispatch sent officers to a report of a missing person. At the scene, officers spoke with a man who said his wife was missing. The man gave a physical description of his wife and said she was last seen late the night before. He said he woke up at noon and found the door open with his wife nowhere to be found. Further, he told officers his wife does not walk far and suffers from mild memory loss. 

Officers canvassed the scene for about 30 minutes, scanning nearby beaches, roofs and stairwells. Finally, an officer found the man’s wife watching TV in the building’s recreation room. She said she had been there for several hours, and the police were able to reunite the couple. 

Sunday, Dec. 1

Truck too loud 

11:55 p.m., 3700 block of Gulf of Mexico Drive

Noise Disturbance: An officer was sent to this location to investigate a noise disturbance but could not find anything noisy. Then, the officer called the complainant, who advised the officer which unit was the alleged culprit. After the officer received this information, the officer spoke with a man who was in the unit. He said he had just arrived in town, unhooked a trailer and parked his truck. The man said the noise could have been from his truck that rattled while running. The officer found no other obvious signs of loud noise, so the case was closed. 

Tuesday, Dec. 3

No crash to report after all

4:30 p.m., 600 block of Saint Judes Drive

Officer Public Service: A citizen called for police assistance after he said he was involved in a car crash. Upon arrival, an officer met with the caller who said the other driver left and did not want to wait for the police to arrive. The man proceeded to show the officer his vehicle, which was unharmed. According to the man’s account, he was backing up slowly and the other vehicle bumped into him. The other driver took a photo of the scratch on his vehicle but did not want to file an insurance claim or meet with the police. According to the caller’s story, the scratch had rust on it already, which made him believe the scratch was not a result of the recent accident. The caller said he did not want to file an insurance claim or file a crash report, so there was nothing more for the officer to do. 

Wednesday, Dec. 4

Going to need professional help 

10:03 a.m., 4200 block of Gulf of Mexico Drive

Officer Public Service: While on marine patrol, an officer was dispatched to a citizen assist call involving someone who needed help with a boat lift. When the officer arrived at the scene, the caller said his boat was pushed too far onto the floating dock during Hurricane Helene and he needed help to get it off of the dock. Officers told the man he would need to call a professional towing service to remove the vessel, and the man agreed that would be the best next step. 

Thursday, Dec. 5

Resident said he 'owns the road'

9:42 p.m., 500 block of Kingfisher Lane

Noise Disturbance: A Longboat Key officer was dispatched to what started as a noise complaint. When the officer arrived in the area, he was flagged down by the complainant who was standing outside with a flashlight and his dog. The man said he was walking his dog when he noticed two workers inside a garage that was under construction. According to the man, he tried to confront the workers about the town’s noise ordinance, and the workers proceeded to close the garage. That’s when the man called 911. 

The responding officer walked up to the garage and knocked on the door, but did not hear any construction sounds while walking up to the garage. When the garage door opened, two men from a garage door construction company spoke with the officer, allegedly unaware of the town construction ordinance. One of the men said they arrived at the site late and were trying to wrap up the job to finish it that day. The workers said they closed the garage door to avoid confrontation with the man. The officer verified that neither the worker nor the company were issued a written warning for the noise violation, so that’s all the officer issued them at this time. 

When the construction workers and officer were leaving, the caller asked the officer what happened and the officer explained that he issued the workers a warning since it was their first violation. The man went on to allege that the workers were also trespassing, which was nullified by the fact that the workers were hired by the homeowner. The officer advised the workers to wrap up quickly to avoid further confrontation. 

Suddenly, the concerned man yelled out that he “owns the road” before saying “I’m going to stand in front of their truck so they can’t leave,” according to the police report. This confused the officer since the reason the man called in the first place was to get them to stop working and leave, which the workers were now trying to do. 

The officer asked the man to move away from the workers’ truck, but the man continued on the argument that he pays for the road so that means he owns the road, therefore the men are trespassing. Once more, the officer told the man he needed to move and this time he obliged.