Break-in at Pasco clubhouse solved cold turkey

HOLIDAY — In her robe and slippers, Delores Kietzer surveyed the damage.

It was 11 o'clock Wednesday night and the North Buena Vista Civic Association's clubhouse had been broken into. Kietzer, 74, is the president.

A neighbor saw three men slip out the back door and yelled for them to stop. The men ran. The witness called the Pasco County Sheriff's Office, whose investigators were now dusting the cupboards and bingo closet for fingerprints.

The thieves broke the closet door and made a mess of the place. They stole a DVD player and three packages of hot dogs, which were bought for the club's Friday night social. The thieves left the buns.

"Isn't that something," Kietzer said.

A deputy asked her:

"Do you by any chance have turkeys here?"

"Well, yes we do," Kietzer said. "We have four."

She had bought them that evening at Sweetbay, which was having a sale — 49 cents a pound. Each turkey was about 16 pounds. Every year the clubhouse feeds 40 to 80 people for Thanksgiving. The club serves turkey, potatoes and gravy, and everyone else brings a side dish.

Kietzer took the deputy to the freezer. They opened the door.

There were only three inside.

"As soon as they found out we had a missing turkey, they knew they had him," Kietzer said.

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Read the rest of the story @ Tampabay.com.

Holiday Hanky Panky -- Bizarre Florida July 4th roundup

+ 3 brothers accused of throwing fireworks at people in golf cart (Naples Daily News)

+ 1 dead, 18 taken to hospitals when lightning strikes at Fourth of July gathering in Fla.(Orlando Sentinel)

+ Fireworks start Tampa blaze (St. Petersburg Times)

+ Nokomis man blows hand off in fireworks accident (Sarasota Herald-Tribune)

+ Woman hit by stray bullet atFourth of July party recovering (Miami Herald)

+ Kids with fireworks blamed for fire at Stuart apartments (TC Palm)

Deputies confiscate $100,000 in illegal fireworks plus other assorted explosives

Acting on a tip from a confidential informant, Martin County Sheriff's deputies entered a Stuart residence Wednesday and found roughly $100,00 worth of illegal fireworks, along with an assortment of other explosive materials and weapons.  TC Palm reports that the home and its garage contained boxes and boxes of fireworks -- "city crasher," “solar flare," “rumble ramble,"  “Molotov cocktail,” and “pyro protest,” among others -- stacked floor to ceiling.

A Martin County Sheriff's bomb disposal expert told the newspaper this was the biggest stash of pyrotechnics and explosives he'd ever seen at a residence and that, if ignited, a bunch of nearby homes would have been destroyed.  Deputies arrested homeowner James Buhs, 46, a convicted felon who'd already been in trouble for illegally possessing firearms.
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Photo:  OSHA

Not nice, Santa

The man in a Santa costume fit into the "naughty" rather than "nice" category, according to NaplesNews.com.

Collier County deputies arrested a 63-year-old felon disguised as Santa after several woman complained that he made lewd comments to them while they shopped at a Naples Wal-Mart.

Donald J. Bohn, who was charged with disorderly conduct and failure to register as a felon, said he was only making jokes to customers and singing to himself.

Holiday bell ringer gets bah-humbug treatment

BAYONET POINT -- Most people give loose change to the Salvation Army volunteers posted outside shopping centers this time of year, ringing bells and keeping watch over their red kettles.

Gerald Warner had this offering: "If you don't stop ringing that bell, I am going to shove it up your a--," he told a volunteer outside Kmart on U.S. 19 Thursday evening, according to a Pasco Sheriff's Office report.

Warner, who is 47 and homeless, was also cursing at customers who were coming and going, the Sheriff's Office said.

A deputy arrested him on a charge of disorderly intoxication. When they arrived at the jail in Land O'Lakes, Warner refused to get out of the patrol car, which led to another charge of resisting arrest without violence.

He is still in jail with bail set at $250, reports the St. Petersburg Times.

BAYONET POINT -- Most people give loose change to the Salvation Army volunteers posted outside shopping centers this time of year, ringing bells and keeping watch over their red kettles.

Gerald Warner had this offering: "If you don't stop ringing that bell, I am going to shove it up your a--," he told a volunteer outside Kmart on U.S. 19 Thursday evening, according to a Pasco Sheriff's Office report.

Warner, who is 47 and homeless, was also cursing at customers who were coming and going, the Sheriff's Office said.

A deputy arrested him on a charge of disorderly intoxication. When they arrived at the jail in Land O'Lakes, Warner refused to get out of the patrol car, which led to another charge of resisting arrest without violence.

He is still in jail with bail set at $250, reports the St. Petersburg Times.

Man attacks father with Christmas tree

HeraldTribune.com reports that a 37-year-old Parrish man was arrested Wednesday after attacking his father with a Christmas tree, according to a Manatee County Sheriff's Office report.  Deputies said the man threw the 3-foot tree at his father during an argument.  When it missed, he tried to use the tree's steel base as a weapon but, police said, his parents managed to grab his arms and subdue him before anyone was injured.  (Image:  National Archives and Records Administration)

Woman assaulted with sweet potato pie

TC Palm reports that Martin County Sheriff's deputies arrested an Indiantown man on Thanksgiving after he expressed dissatisfaction with the holiday repast by hitting his girlfriend in the face with a hot sweet potato pie.

After 46-year old Christopher Ford ran out the back door of the residence, the woman's three teenagers entered the kitchen to see what the disturbance was about, police said, and they saw their mother with pie all over her face.  After deputies arrived, the woman was taken to a local hospital for treatment of burns and blisters on her neck.

Police found Ford later that night and arrested him on a charge of domestic battery.

Mechanic uses customer's car to go Christmas shopping

News12.com reports that a St. Lucie County woman who dropped her vehicle off at for repairs at a local auto shop was surprised enough to call the cops when she later saw it in the parking lot of an R.J. Gators -- filled with Christmas presents.  Police arrived and determined that the car did, in fact, belong to the woman and questioned the auto shop's mechanic after he exited the restaurant with a fellow employee.

Initially, police said, the mechanic gave a false name and then denied taking the vehicle.  He appeared intoxicated, according to police, but eventually owned up to using the car to buy his children's Chirstmas gifts.  After he was arrested -- and charged with grand theft of a vehicle, giving a false ID to a police officer, possessing a fraudulent drivers license and resisting arrest -- the mechanic told police that he drove customers' vehicles for personal use "all the time."

Trick or treat; cash preferred

HeraldTribune.com reports that a man wearing a Halloween mask shoved the assistant manager of a Bradenton Dollar Tree store to the ground Thursday night and made off with $1700 and a traveler's check, according to police.  The robber, described by the Manatee County Sheriff's Office as a 5-foot-10 black man weighing about 170 pounds, was wearing a tan sweatshirt and black boots in addition to the mask.  Police said the assistant manager was not injured.

Enough with the Christmas trees already!

Christmas is long over, but the holiday hanky-panky continues. In Nicevile in the Florida Pahandle, a man says someone spent the past week leaving Christmas trees in his driveway, ringing his doorbell and running away, the Northwest Florida Daily News reports. An Okaloosa County deputy found seven Christmas trees and one broken limb in the driveway. One was in front of each garage door, one in front of the home’s front door, two in the middle of the driveway and one in each entrance to the driveway, the paper reports.