OPEN CONTAINER ROUND-UP: Natural Light's popularity among Tampa's loitering population may be on the wane, usurped by a fellow member of the Natural family. Showing up in report after report, if someone is drinking on the street, chances are good they now have a Natty Ice hidden behind that tattered brown paper bag. For example, cops doing surveillance in the area of Nebraska Avenue saw a man holding a bottle of what looked like beer. As they approached the man, who was sitting outside a Chevron station, the cops realized "the bottle to be a quart bottle of Natural Ice Beer." (This turned out to be the least of the man's troubles, as he was also charged with possession of a crack pipe.) Over on Skagway Avenue E. cops observed two men "holding Natural Ice quarts of beer in their hands. Both quarts were half full and the Defs were sitting on the city right of way." At least they were just sitting on the right of way. In yet another case, officers on Columbus Boulevard observed a man in the middle of the street wearing no shirt and "trying to give a beer bottle to cars." Can anyone guess the brand? Naturally.
MAN'S BEST FRIEND: A St. Petersburg woman was in her bathroom getting ready for work when she heard the sounds of a disturbance in her yard. Upon opening her front door, the woman saw the neighbor's dog Axel, a "very large pit bull," attacking her cat. Per the report, "The dog had the cat in its mouth shaking it violently." The woman ran outside and snatched the cat from the dog's jaws, ending the interspecies confrontation. The officer went on to report: "Axel is apparently friendly to humans but is spooked by other animals and will attack any animal that moves." Although "visibly shaken from the attack," the cat had no injuries. Axel's owner advised he will keep the dog on a leash, and police took no further action.
LOOKING FOR LOVE… A man reported to police that a chance meeting with a woman at a gas station on Fourth Street in St. Petersburg had cost him dearly. After striking up a conversation with the woman, she "agreed to come back to the victim's apartment and help him move." The man denied any "prostitute/john" arrangement in the relationship, although "he admits he was hoping the encounter would lead to sex." While no sex did result, the man definitely got screwed. The woman swiped his debit card off the kitchen counter, spending a total of $476.31 at various grocers and gas stations around the area.
From the files of the T.P.D. & S.P.P.D.
This article appears in Oct 5-11, 2005.