- May 8, 2024
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Monday, Feb. 10
Wasn’t me!
9:49 p.m. First block of Belvedere Lane. Burglary.
A young woman called the Sheriff’s Office to report that someone had broken into her home early that morning — while her mother was there — and stolen a checkbook and five $100 bills.
The woman told deputies that her mother had said she was home alone that morning when she heard someone enter the house at about 6:30 a.m.
The mother thought it must be her daughter, and so she didn’t get up to look. But when she asked her daughter later that day why she’d come home so early and then left, the daughter said she hadn’t.
Later, she realized that the checkbook and money was gone. The mother said she’d locked the house the previous night, and that it sounded as if whoever had entered had used a key.
No fingerprints were lifted.
Tuesday, Feb. 11
A no-rush approach to retail theft
3 p.m. 100 block of Cypress Point Parkway. Shoplifing.
An asset-protection officer at a local big-box store was watching surveillance video when he saw someone that made him look closer: a man suspected of previous shoplifting.
The officer watched the surveillance as the man placed a box of diapers in his cart, shopped the electronic section, headed to the automotive section and picked up a gallon of oil, and then grabbed some video games and paper goods.
Instead of heading for a cash register, the man went into the bathroom — leaving the cart by the door — and then walked back out, got his cart and pushed it out of the store.
By that time, the employee had notified the store manager, who followed the thief toward his car.
He was loading the groceries into his trunk when he realized the manager was watching him. He closed the car and walked away, then circled back to the car later and drove off.
But the manager noted his license plate number, and deputies used it to determine his name. They charged him with shoplifting.
Wednesday, Feb. 12
Wanna-be burglar fail
3:52 p.m. 1000 block of Hickory Street. Attempted burglary.
A 12-year-old girl was home alone Wednesday afternoon when a man she didn’t recognize knocked on the front door. She stayed quiet, since she didn’t know him.
But instead of leaving, the man got into his white Dodge truck, drove around to the side of the house, and began yanking repeatedly on a side door, which opens outward.
The girl retreated to her bedroom and called a next-door neighbor. The man went to the front of the house again, and started pulling on the front door, which had a deadbolt.
He left suddenly at about the time the 12-year-old’s sister was dropped off by the school bus, and a deputy taking the girl’s report later that day suggested the sister’s arrival might have interrupted the burglar’s attempts to break in.
The neighbor the girl had called, though, saw the man drive away. He followed the vehicle until law enforcement officers arrived and stopped it.
Deputies found two men in the truck. The man later identified as the one who’d tried to break in was the passenger. The driver said he’d driven to the area from Ocala with the passenger, and that the passenger asked him to stop at that house so he could pick something up. The driver saw the passenger knock on both doors then run back to the truck.
Deputies arrested the passenger and charged him with attempted second-degree burglary of a dwelling. He refused to answer any questions without a lawyer.
