This dude give new meaning to the proverbial beer run May 21, 2013

Stopping to steal beer while running away from cops may sound silly, but this is South Florida.

The illegal beer run occurred early Sunday morning after a burglary suspect was allegedly caught in the middle of looting a Lighthouse Point home and trashing it with mustard and illegible scribblings, police said.

The police chase ended with Andrew Fatzinger, 21, of Port St. Lucie, taken to a hospital after tussling with a police K-9, authorities said.

The bizarre string of incidents began about 2 a.m. Sunday when a neighbor called police to report seeing a man climbing up to the second floor of a townhouse in the 1900 block of Northeast 32nd Street. The neighbor said he could hear things breaking and items being slammed to the floor, according to a Lighthouse Police arrest report.

The residents of the townhouse were out of town, police said.

Want to really piss a woman off? Swipe the purse with her phone inside…and her gun, and badge May 20, 2013

WINTER HAVEN, Fla. (AP) — Authorities are searching for the man they say stole an off-duty deputy’s purse that held her badge and gun at a central Florida grocery store.

Winter Haven Police say the Polk County Sheriff’s deputy was entering the store Saturday night when the suspect snatched her bag and jumped into a silver SUV.

The deputy’s credentials along with her .380 Ruger still inside its holster were in the purse. The deputy was not identified.

Anyone with information on this case is asked to call Heartland Crime Stoppers at 1-800-226-TIPS (8477).

Hands in the cookie jar: Pastor stole from church, prosecutors say

A pastor of a Lakeland church is accused of stealing more than $5,000 from the church, according to an investigation by the State Attorney’s Office in Bartow.

Johnny Murff, 37, of 1314 Fairbanks St. in Lakeland, faces one count of grand theft, an arrest report states.

Investigator Sherry Doty wrote in an affidavit that Murff stole $5,561 over the span of 17 months from New Hope Missionary Baptist Church on Powhatan Court.

Doty wrote that she interviewed Murff, who confirmed that he paid for his cellphone and electric bills with money from the church’s bank accounts.

Murff was arrested May 4 and released the next day after posting $1,000 bail, jail records state.

He did not respond Tuesday to a telephone call for comment.

Sometimes you just have to wonder …. Man accused of destroying $400 door to steal $10 May 18, 2013

CRESTVIEW – A man has been accused of destroying a $400 door to steal $10 from a business, according to a Crestview Police arrest report.

On April 20 officers responded to an alarm at Badcock Furniture on Main Street and caught 19-year-old Matthew S. Madden, no address listed, in the area after a brief foot chase. They found $10 in his possession.

After he was read his rights, police said, Madden admitted to burglarizing the store and confessed he took the money.

A glass door at the rear of the businesses had been broken out. The sales area had been ransacked and money trays removed from their respective drawers.

The store manager estimated damage to the door at $400. The manager also confirmed $10 was missing from a money tray.

Madden was charged with burglary to an unoccupied structure, petit theft, and criminal mischief. His court date is May 28.

Teen tries to rob home; residents beat, kick and tased him … wait till you see this guy’s face! May 16, 2013

PALM BAY, Fla. -  Residents inside a Palm Bay home beat, kicked and used a Taser to shock a 19-year-old during a home invasion.

Michael Maxwell, of Palm Bay, was charged with one count of home invasion robbery with a firearm or deadly weapon and four counts of battery after police were called about 1 a.m. Wednesday to investigate a disturbance at a home in the 700 block of Monterey Drive.

Maxwell was being held on a $51,000 bond at the Brevard County Jail Complex in Sharpes.  Police also arrested a 17-year-old companion of Maxwell on the same charges.

Police said that several men, including Maxwell, arrived at the home in a gold 2004 Chevrolet Malibu and stormed the home, but the residents inside managed to fight off the attack.

Maxwell, who police said works as a tattoo artist, was taken to Holmes Regional Medical Center in Melbourne for treatment after he was repeatedly kicked, Tased and struck by the victims, according to police reports.

Police questioned the victims but did not immediately report whether they knew Maxwell, the teen or the other men.

They’ll steal anything these days…without a morsel of compassion May 15, 2013

An Englewood man reported that this motorized wheelchair valued at $6,000 was taken after it broke down in the area of Edmonton and Euston Avenues mid-day Monday.

The victim said he uses his Golden Technologies Compass motorized wheelchair every day to get around the neighborhood.  On Monday when he was riding it, the batteries died and he was forced to leave it at the corner of Edmonton Avenue and Euston Avenue in East Englewood at about 1 pm.  When he returned at about 1:45 pm to retrieve his chair, it was gone.

Anyone with information concerning this missing wheelchair is asked to please call the Sheriff’s Office at 941-639-2101, or Crime Stoppers at 800-780-TIPS (8477).

The attached photo is of a Golden Technologies Compass motorized wheelchair from the Golden Technologies website.

Yo, old lady, check out that nail in your tire so I can steal your wheels

Christopher Lee Trulock, 34, approached the 88-year-old-woman as she pulled up to a pump at a Jacksonville gas station and told her she had a nail in her tire, according to a news release from the Jacksonville’s Sheriff’s Office.

When the elderly woman walked to the rear of her car to check her tire, Trulock got into her car and made his getaway, the release stated.

When cops who had been searching for her car spotted it, they noticed that Trulock jumped a fence behind a nearby building and landed in mud…leaving behind shoe prints.  He was later caught by a K-9 officer and two other cops behind a dumpster, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

The K-9 service dog managed to take another bite out of crime: Trulock was arrested and transported to a hospital for treatment for a bite from the K-9. 

Bank bandito with machete taunted tellers to call the cops May 13, 2013

MANATEE — A knife-wielding man robbed a Bank of America branch Monday morning but was arrested about 10 minutes after the holdup, according to the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office.

Brenan Cole Fountain, 31, reportedly walked into the bank at 3401 Cortez Road at 11:06 a.m. waving a machete-like knife above his head.

He slammed his hand on a counter and demanded money, according to the sheriff’s report.

After receiving some cash, Fountain left the bank, waving his hands in the air as if to celebrate what he had just done, a sheriff’s supervisor said.

Unknown to Fountain, a witness who works for the bank’s alarm and security services followed him from the bank and called 911. Minutes

after the robbery, Fountain was under arrest,

No one was injured in the robbery.

For Bradenton’s Lenbert Bailey, 40, a customer in the bank during the robbery, the unsettling experience was like being in a movie.

Bailey was sitting with a sales service specialist and had just wired money to China for his business when he looked up and saw a man threatening tellers and waving a large knife just 10 feet away.

“He was yelling, ‘Put it out, put it out,’” Bailey said. “The tellers started putting cash on the counter.”

The robber had no bag to put the money in and did not bother with a mask, Bailey said.

“He was just wearing a baseball cap and a white T-shirt and kept saying, ‘Go ahead, call the police, call them,’” Bailey said.

As the robber held the money in his hands, Bailey, an athletic man with boxing and self-defense training, got up out of his seat when he saw the knife.

“I was getting ready to defend myself,” Bailey said.

A bank employee asked him to sit back down, Bailey said.

“Absolutely, I thought about going for him, taking him down, but when she told me to sit down, I did,” Bailey said.

Bailey said he felt outrage and anger over the incident.

“They were really frightened,” Bailey said of the all-female teller staff. “They were sobbing. I felt really badly for the ladies.”

The robber’s arrogant demeanor, Bailey said, included challenging employees to call the police, flaunting the knife and not wearing a disguise.

“He walked out of the bank slowly and didn’t really seem to care,” Bailey said.

Deputies arrested Fountain in the 4600 block of 43rd Street West, about 11 blocks from the bank.

This same Bank of America branch was robbed in July 2011 and the robber in that crime was also arrested quickly.

Investigators quickly picked up the trail of Roger Upshaw with the aid of a tracking device slipped in with the money, according to the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office.

Upshaw, who had received about $4,000, was reportedly arrested about four blocks away.

Shoplifter tried to run over officers during getaway

A woman suspected of shoplifting $300 worth of merchandise from Kohl’s and speeding through the parking lot to avoid police was arrested Monday night.

Cassandra Carson, 50, was charged by the Gainesville Police Department with two counts of aggravated assault on a officer, grand theft, resisting arrest without violence, fleeing an officer and leaving the scene of an accident, according to an arrest report.

The incident happened about 8:53 p.m. at Kohl’s at Archer Road and Southwest 34th Street. The report states that a loss prevention officer saw Carson in the store for about two hours cutting the price tags off merchandise and concealing the items.

Carson left the store without paying for the goods and was confronted by two GPD officers who had been called to the store, the report states.

Instead of stopping for police, she got into her car and quickly backed it up toward one of the officers, who had to get out of the way. The report states that Carson drove toward another officer while careening through the parking lot at high speed. Carson drove recklessly through the parking lot, sideswiping another car before leaving the parking lot, police reported.

Carson eventually was stopped nearby by other officers and arrested.

Duo caught shoplifting for items in Walmart to make a bomb

GAINESVILLE, FLA – The Gainesville Police Department, assisted by the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office Bomb Disposal Team and agents of ATF located and safely collected an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) in Gainesville Tuesday afternoon.

GPD officers were dispatched to the Walmart Supercenter at 1800 NE 12

th Avenue around 11:30am Tuesday in response to two individuals that had been detained by Walmart store personnel for shoplifting. The suspects were caught stealing BBs, flare guns and other items that could be used in the manufacture of an explosive device. GPD detectives began interviewing Mason Scott Beuning, 18 of Gainesville and determined that Beuning had already manufactured an explosive device. Beuning told investigators that the device was located at his residence, 3119 NW 4th St in Gainesville. GPD investigators, ATF agents and members of the ASO Bomb Disposal Team responded to Beuning’s home and located a cardboard tube containing black powder. The tube was sealed at both ends and contained a fuse.

ASO Bomb Disposal Team members examined the device and confirmed the presence of an explosive powder. Bomb Disposal Team members then safely collected the device for further analysis. Beuning will be charged with one count of “Possessing a Destructive Device” which is a third-degree Felony. Beuning told the investigators that he constructed the device as a “homemade firework” and that he had been scared to detonate it.

The other person with Beuning was 18 year old Wolfe O’Meara, also of Gainesville. O’Meara has only been charged with misdemeanor shoplifting and possession of Drug Paraphernalia at this time.

GPD Chief Tony Jones praised the work of all the persons involved in the case, including Walmart staff, GPD personnel, ATF agents and the ASO Bomb Disposal Team. “In the wake of recent national tragedies, the Gainesville Police Department is taking no chance when it comes to explosives” Jones said. “The professional handling of this investigation by all involved parties kept Gainesville safe today.”