BRING DA' NOISE: Neighbors have come to regard "Joe's Stereo," a car audio retailer on Broadway Avenue in Tampa, as a bit of a pariah. Tampa P.D. recorded 47 incidents at the business between October of last year and February, the vast majority of which were noise complaints from residents of the surrounding neighborhood. Finally, on Feb. 17, police had had enough. Officers dispatched to the scene in response to yet another noise complaint parked one-tenth of a mile from Joe's. Immediately upon stopping, the officers heard "very loud music" coming from the vicinity of the business. They then timed the noise for four minutes without pause, the reporting officer noting: "The bass of the music was at such an intensity that we could literally feel it." Apparently not in a dancing mood, the cops moved in on the business where they observed the music coming from a car parked in Joe's lot. Finally, on the 48th violation, Joe was taken into custody.
SPREAD IT ROUND: A Tampa police officer got some bonus action when arresting a man for misdemeanor possession of a controlled substance at 16th Street and 10th Avenue in Tampa. After the initial confiscation of visible contraband, the cop asked the man if he could search him. The office writes in his report: "I located in his front left pocket a small baggie with a substance of marijuana." With this second baggie now in hand, the officer moved on to searching the man's vehicle. Inside the car, the officer found a small baggie containing pot in the center console and "a tin case (Altoids) with a baggie, which contained a green leafy substance (marijuana)." The scavenger hunt not yet complete, a glass pipe and a metal rod soon turned up in a "green, red and yellow box." The man was booked on multiple counts of possession.
BAD MEDICINE: Lame concertgoers take note: Snorting a bump of coke off the dashboard of your Bronco II before heading in to that bitchin' Bon Jovi show may not be the best idea. I know you want to be all wired for Jon and the gang, but you should wait until you're inside, surrounded by throngs of other pseudomusic-lovers of limited taste who provide a natural camouflage. One such hipster found this out the hard way after he was nabbed with the straw still up his nose in a parking lot adjacent the St. Pete Times Forum. A cop spotted this gentleman from across a parking lot, moved in, scared the shit out of him (Per the report: "[He] looked immediately very scared") and made the arrest. Rest easier knowing one more Bon Jovi fan is off the streets.
From the files of the T.P.D.
This article appears in Apr 12-18, 2006.