A sampling of police calls in Gulfport and South Pasadena from July 30 to August 3.
Source: Gulfport Police Department, Pinellas County Crime Viewer
Personal Shopper
July 30: Amazon days are the best days… unless, like this Gulfportian in the Waterfront District, you get something you didn’t order. While they didn’t order it, someone used their credit card to buy it.
The Wolf of 49th Street
July 30: When a man bought a $400 gift card at Dollar General, employees may have thought it strange — after all, how many bags of off-brand chips does a person need? When he tried to buy another gift card for $400, though, they knew something was hinky, especially when the credit card the man tried to use wouldn’t go through and he started yelling at them. While it sounds odd and yes, perhaps like a bit of credit card fraud, Gulfport police report they’ve yet to find any credit card fraud victims in the case.
Heroin(e)
July 31: Thanks to both the Gulfport police and fire departments, a man who may have overdosed on heroin didn’t die. GPD responded to an overdose call, where a woman on the scene told them she’d already given the man — who was blue and having a hard time breathing — a dose of Narcan. The police gave the man a second dose, but when the man stopped breathing and officers couldn’t find a pulse, they began CPR. He started breathing and the fire department brought him to the hospital.
No Fences
August 1: When Gulfport police responded to a call that a woman had driven into a fence, they suspected she might be impaired. The DUI investigation included a Breathalyzer test that showed her breath alcohol was more than four times the legal limit. She slept it off at the pricey, yet austere, Pinellas County Jail.
Lawnmower Man
August 2: When a man saw someone head into his backyard, did he confront the man immediately? No, he did not. Instead, he decided to wait and watch. After a while, he did approach the man, who asked him if he had any work for him (he did not) and then left the yard, attempting to liberate two lawnmowers in the process. When the resident told the man to bring back the lawnmowers, the man did not. Gulfport Police Officer Michael Sigsbee found the man — the two lawnmowers assisted in identification — who, reports say, “was not cooperative” and only stopped pushing the lawnmowers away from the scene of the crime when Officer Sigsbee, after repeatedly telling the man to stop, stopped his car in front of the man. The man told police he didn’t steal the lawnmowers and wouldn’t give Officer Sigsbee an address, and the victim refused to press charges. Nevertheless, police arrested the man for resisting an officer without violence. Because of the pandemic, however, police gave him a notice to appear and released him to the custody of a relative. According to police, the man “seemed to be under the influence of something.”
Practice Doesn’t Always Make Perfect
August 3: When Gulfport store employees saw a woman attempting to shoplift several items, they called the police. As soon as the woman realized they’d called the police, however, she took off out of the store at a run but proved no match for Officer Jimmy Embry, who arrested her when he caught her attempting to dump the items behind some palm trees by Gulfport Elementary. Officer Embry charged her with felony retail theft, according to police, “due to multiple prior convictions.”
Talladega Nights: Gulfport-Style
August 3: When an unidentified woman ran a stop sign at 48th Street and 27th Avenue South, she hit a commercial truck and fled the scene. Not her lucky day: Someone who knew her saw her there and gave police her name. As soon as they find her, Gulfport police tell us, they’ll file charges.
Heaven Help Them
August 3: Employees of a Stetson neighborhood church called police when they realized the church’s bank account was $10,000 poorer. They told police they believed someone “created fake checks” against the church’s bank account to get the money. Attention, criminals: Fraud is a sin.
Gulfport
Alarm
8/5, 10:31 p.m., 3100 block of Beach Blvd. S.
Battery
8/5, 3:15 a.m., 1200 block of 58th St. S.
Burglary-Residence
8/8, 5 p.m., 3200 block of 58th St. S.
Burglary-Vehicle
8/8, 3:03 p.m., 1600 block of 54th St. S.
8/10, 4 p.m., 5400 block of 17th Ave. S.
South Pasadena
Theft-Shoplifting
8/6, 8:22 p.m., 6800 block of Gulfport Blvd. S.
Stolen Vehicle
8/4, 3:30 a.m., 7000 Block of Sunset Dr. S.
Battery
8/6, 7:06 a.m., 6800 block of Gulfport Blvd. S.
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