- April 18, 2024
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No picnic: Miscreants make off with park bench
5:43 a.m. 900 block of Central Avenue, Palm Coast. Criminal mischief: Someone called the Sheriff’s Office to report a green minivan dragging a park bench on Central Avenue near Bulldog Drive. The bench was then left in the middle of the road, blocking it, the caller told deputies. Deputies arrived to find the minivan driving “completely blacked out,” according to a Sheriff’s Office case report. The minivan almost struck one patrol car, entered the E-Section, and sped south on Belle Terre Boulevard. A deputy found the bench on the sidewalk at Bulldog Drive and Central Avenue. There was a rope — which looked like it had been cut — tied around the bench, and scrapes along the road where the van had dragged it. The bench had been unbolted from its spot in the park. Deputies didn’t catch the mischief-makers.
Thief hides $545 of champagne in his pants
12:53 p.m. 200 block of Palm Coast Parkway NE. Larceny: An employee of a local supermarket called the Sheriff’s Office saying the store manager was chasing a shoplifting suspect through the parking lot. The suspect ran toward a nearby fast food restaurant, and deputies could’t find him, according to a Sheriff’s Office report. When deputies spoke to store staff, the employees said the same suspect, a man, had stolen from the store before. “He steals several bottles of champagne and conceals the merchandise in his pants, making multiple trips in-and-out of the store to his vehicle,” a deputy wrote in the report. “Each time he returns inside the store he changes his clothing.” The vehicle was a GMC Jimmy — and champagne-colored, the deputy noted. Deputies found the SUV in the parking lot and determined its registered owner. The owner, a 59-year-old, matched the thief shown in store surveillance video stealing three bottles of Moet+Chandon Ice Imperial, worth $170.97, and five bottles of Moet+Chandon Nectar Imperial $374.95 — altogether, $545.92 of booze. The man returned to the SUV, and deputies arrested him after stopping it in a traffic stop. They found the champagne in the SUV's cargo area, and returned it to the supermarket.
