COPS CORNER: 'It was driving itself, Officer - I swear!'


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Oct. 21

‘It was driving itself, Officer — I swear!’

9:46 p.m. Intersection of Pine Lakes Parkway and Belle Terre Parkway. Driving with license suspended.
A deputy stopped a Buick LaSabre with an expired temporary tag.

He approached the driver and asked for the driver’s license, registration and proof of insurance.

The driver, a 50-year-old man, “stated to me that he was a ‘sovereign citizen’ and that he was not required to have a driver’s license,” the deputy wrote in an arrest report. The man then “gave me paperwork documenting his ‘sovereign citizenship,’” the deputy added.

He deputy asked the man if he had any identification on him.

The man showed him a Florida ID card. The deputy ran his name through the computer and discovered that the man was a habitual traffic offender and that his Florida driver’s license was suspended.

The deputy asked the man to step out of the car, the man asked why, and the deputy told him that under Florida law a valid driver’s license is required to operate a motor vehicle.

The man “stated that he was not driving but was ‘traveling’ and since he was a ‘sovereign citizen’ he did not have to comply with the Florida State Statute.”

The man was the car’s sole occupant and was sitting in the driver’s seat.

He refused to step out of the car when the deputies asked him to.

They arrested him on charges of knowingly driving with a suspended license and of resisting arrest without violence.

What is he, 10?

9:09 a.m. 200 block of Bridle Path. Domestic violence.
A 57-year-old woman had an argument with her boyfriend and decided to get out of the house.
She left on a bicycle.

But the angry 38-year-old boyfriend, according to a Sheriff’s Office report, “caught up with her on another bicycle down the road from their residence,” then “pushed her off of the bicycle.”

She told him she was calling law enforcement, and he rode off.

Deputies who arrived at the scene wrote in a report that the woman had no visible injuries.

They searched for the boyfriend but couldn’t find him, and the woman decided not to press charges, but, “due to the above mentioned subjects being involved in other incidents of domestic violence,” according to the report, a deputy completed a complaint affidavit on the incident and forwarded it to the State Attorney’s Office for review.

Oct. 22

Single-minded thief

9:06 a.m. First block of River Trail Drive. Residential burglary.
A Palm Coast couple returned from a trip to Montana and returned home to a burglarized house. Just one thing was stolen: the $500 42-inch Vizio LED flat-screen TV that had sat on a TV stand in the couple’s living room.

The couple noticed the theft at about 3 p.m. Oct. 19, according to a Sheriff’s Office report, and initially decided not to report it, but then “had a change of heart.”

The couple didn’t have a house-sitter, and there was no surveillance video of the property.

A deputy documented the crime scene with a body camera. The TV had been positioned about 15-20 feet from the front door, according to the report.

The wife told the deputy that there was no forced entry made into the home and the deputy wrote in his report that there were no investigative leads, but that the TV would be entered in to a crime database as stolen if the woman finds the serial number and reports it to the Sheriff’s Office.

Well, that’s one way to lower a water bill…

12:53 p.m. First block of Reidel Lane. Larceny.
A 46-year-old man called the Sheriff’s Office after he realized that someone had stolen the water meter from one of his properties.

The theft happened sometime between Oct. 8 and Oct. 22, he told deputies, according to a Sheriff’s Office report.

The meter cost $88.10 to replace.

The man told deputies the home had been occupied in the past by squatters who “have been known to steal water and electricity from neighbors,” according to the report, but was not able to give deputies any identifying information on the squatters.

The water meter was entered in to a crime database as stolen.

Oct. 25

Now, this one took premeditation

10:24 p.m. I-95 Northbound scale house. Criminal mischief.
A truck driver drove through the scale house on Interstate 95, noticed one of the scale employees’ cars, and “tossed a bag that contained some type of human waste on (the employee’s) vehicle,” according to a Sheriff’s Office report.

The employee told deputies he “did he know of anyone he has recently had issues with,” didn’t know who the truck driver was, and couldn’t make out the truck’s logo as it drove through the scale.

He said he would work with his manager to try to get a higher quality image of the truck as it passed through the scales.

There was no damage to Karl’s vehicle and the bag containing the waste was removed from the hood area prior to LEO arrival.

Due to no known suspects, there is no further action at this time.

Oct. 26

Find another hobby, kids

4:08 a.m. First block of Black Alder Drive. Criminal mischief.
A woman looked outside her home late at night and saw two boys standing by a neighbor’s mailbox.

The woman and her husband “had incidents in the past where juveniles have damaged their mailbox along with several others,” a deputy wrote in an incident report, and the kids had pulled several mailboxes in the area out of the ground the previous might.

At about 3:45 a.m., the woman and her husband walked outside and found their mailbox, which had been cemented into the ground, lying in the grass.

They estimated the damage at $50.

A deputy wrote in a report that he would return to the area to identify the miscreants.

Oct. 27

What not to wear to your arrest date

4:10 a.m. 1000 block of justice lane. Introducing contraband into a detention facility.
A 24-year-old woman turned herself in to Sheriff’s Office deputies on an active warrant — for violating probation for a misdemeanor, according to jail records — and deputies took her to the county jail.

But when a detention deputy searched her, the deputy found two pills in the breast pocket of the woman’s jacket. The pills turned out to be Oxycodone.

The woman “stated that the jacket was not hers and she had no knowledge of the items,” a deputy wrote in an arrest report.

The pills were confiscated as evidence and the woman was charged with a count of introducing contraband into a detention facility.
 

 

 

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