- May 15, 2024
-
-
Loading
Loading
Monday, Feb. 17
Dirty money doesn’t pass the sniff test
9:20 p.m. Belle Terre Pass and Whiteview Parkway. Narcotics
A deputy stopped a white Kia minivan that blew through a local stop sign, and when he approached the car, it reeked of marijuana.
So the deputy called in a deputy with a police dog, and the dog confirmed the deputy’s suspicion.
The deputies searched the car, and found 48.5 grams of a “green leafy substance” that field-tested positive for marijuana.
Then they searched the driver and found even more goodies: $1,459 cash in his left front pocket, and another $2,640 in his right front pocket.
As they took the man into custody, he asked what would happen to the car he’d been driving — his mother’s, not his.
The deputies told him it would be towed, and the man blurted out that there was even more money in the car, hidden inside a pair of sneakers.
A deputy found the shoe box, which was sealed with packing tape. A total of $6,000 was wadded up inside the sneakers.
Deputies charged the man with possession of 20 or more grams or marijuana, and with possession of marijuana with intent to distribute.
Tuesday, Feb. 18
Too much information
9:21 a.m., 5000 block of State Road 100. Fraud.
A deputy headed out to a local car dealership after an employee reported fraud.
The employee said that a man had come in with preapproval for a new pickup truck. The employee verified the approval with the finance company, which confirmed that the customer was approved to purchase one vehicle.
The employee completed the sale paperwork and released the car to the customer.
But while the employee waited for the payment from the finance company, they called him with bad news: the man, only approved for one car, had already used the loan at a different dealership — several, in fact — and the finance company wouldn’t make payment on the loan.
The company made several attempts to contact the man by cell phone, but he didn’t return the truck. When the employee called him, the man hung up on him.
But after the employee contacted the Sheriff’s Office to report the truck as stolen, the "customer" was easy enough to track down: he’d listed all his personal information — correctly, and with a copy of his drivers license — on the sale paperwork for the truck.
So a deputy gave him a call. A man answered the phone, but he cut off the deputy after the deputy explained that he was a law enforcement officer. First, the man said, he wasn’t the person the deputy had asked to speak to. Then, when asked for his name, he paused and gave only a first name.
He refused to give his last name and said he didn’t believe the deputy was actually a deputy. Then he hung up the phone.
The next time the deputy spoke with him, he was extra polite, according to a Sheriff’ Office report.
He said he had purchased the vehicles to “replace the fleet vehicle” for his boss — who he wouldn’t name — and said he’d have to speak with the unnamed boss for more information.
The deputies looked up the man’s home address, provided by the car dealership employee, and handed the information over to a law enforcement agency that has jurisdiction over the town where the man lives.
Friday, Feb. 21
And just what were you doing with these, dear?
2:23 p.m. First block of Slocum Path. Verbal disturbance.
A man called the Sheriff’s Office and told deputies a woman was screaming at her husband and beating on his truck with a pair of handcuffs.
When the witness tried to stop her, she knocked him across the face with the cuffs.
Then, he said, she yelled at her husband and drove off.
When deputies arrived, the man who’d been clobbered across the face with the handcuffs didn’t have any visible injuries. He declined to give a written statement and said he didn’t want to pursue the case.
Neither did the husband, who said the handcuffs caused minor damage to the truck, which was a marital asset. Deputies closed the case.
