Captain David Smith with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s been going on in the county.
Memorial Day is a big deal for so many people nationwide, but the MSCO is also having special commemorations.
Smith said, “I’m also a veteran, the United States Air Force and the sheriff is a big proponent of supporting the military. We do hire a lot of military. There are several deputies that are current or retired or veterans through our armed forces. It’s a great thing and to honor our armed forces, but we also have something coming up on Friday, Law Enforcement Memorial celebration at Bayview Park around 5pm. We invite the public out, our community loves and supports law enforcement. So just please come out. We have a beautiful celebration. We’re excited and wish everybody could join us.”
A 61 year old Little Torch Key man was arrested recently for stealing $1,200 worth of power tools from Home Depot.
Smith said, “This is a very, very good story about how the sheriff and our community are so well in tune. So the sheriff is actually in Home Depot and a patron walks over to him and says, Sheriff, there’s somebody that just walked out with a bunch of items. So the sheriff gets on the radio and puts out a BOLO, be on the lookout, for this gentleman and we receive it down in the district, south end district. This gentleman is actually known to the south end deputy, so we’re looking for him around the Bahia Honda area, and we conducted a traffic stop on this vehicle. As we’re walking up to the vehicle, the whole backseat is filled with all these items. I’m talking about Milwaukee tools, laser levels, I mean, this is about a couple of thousand dollars worth of stuff and very big bulky items. So the deputy is detaining, through the investigation up there in Marathon we get the video, we get the receipt of all the items he actually took. He actually left items there on scene as well in a shopping cart he just pushed right out the front door. We take him into custody. He actually admits on the side of the road he goes, man I really messed up. It just goes to show you, even the sheriff is always working. We’re always out there, the partnerships we have with this community, somebody just to walk up to the sheriff and the sheriff is on it, puts out the BOLO and the deputies get it. It’s another great day to put somebody in Sheriff Ramsay’s Airbnb.”
Two people from West Palm Beach and Plantation Florida were stopped and found to have a variety of drugs in their possession recently.
Smith said, “This was a traffic stop that took place in Marathon and unfortunately we’ve had some incidents here in the past, but traffic is an unknown for us. You never know. So, in this instance, we have a 34 year old from West Palm Beach and a 33-year-old from Plantation were both arrested after a traffic stop of their Ford pickup. A headlight was out around 11:53pm. The search of the vehicle found about 17.8 grams of cocaine, 25 pills of ecstasy, 53 pills of Lorazepam, which is Xanax without a prescription, 12 THC pills, 10 THC gummy candies and assorted unmarked pills and drug paraphernalia. So they had a full party kit. I don’t know what they were thinking about doing. But with our traffic stops and our deputies out there, it’s pretty much zero tolerance. It just sends a message.”
Another traffic stop resulted in a DUI arrest of a 35 year old from North Carolina recently.
Smith said, “We always have a zero tolerance on DUIs. Drunk driving is not tolerated down here. So this was a 35-year-old from North Carolina was arrested for DUI and property damage. We had multiple callers on this and reckless driver callers. The county calls in to our dispatch and gives a description of the vehicle. We found the vehicle, we stopped the vehicle around the 15 mile marker, and, get the gentleman out, do the field sobriety exercises, he was found to be under the influence with a blood alcohol content, BAC .212. So this is almost three times the legal limit. It just goes to show you this, it’s still out there, I wish it wasn’t, but it’s still out there.”
A contractor out of Miami agreed to do work on a Key Colony Beach property recently, but he never did the work, never even purchased supplies for the project, but pocketed over $35,000 from that owner. He will be held accountable.
Smith said, “We hate to see this. It actually happens. Not a lot. But usually after storms we get some stuff like this, but this wasn’t after the storm. This was a 57 year old Miami man was charged with grand theft. We have great investigators. They were able to bring charges against this gentleman. The property owner hired the man to work on a deck and several checks he deposited, however the work was never performed. So it goes to show you please do your due diligence in checking your contractors and do your research. The cheapest guy is not always the best guy, so just please do your research. If it does happen and you’re not getting the work done, definitely call the non emergency number, call us and our investigators, our deputies, the sheriff’s deputies will come out and we’ll take the case, make sure there’s accountability.”
A 33 year old Florida woman from Ocala was arrested last week after attacking three victims of Big Pine Key. The woman is facing three counts of battery, resisting arrest with violence.
Smith said she “was arrested for attacking everybody on scene, including two males and one female. When she was taken into custody, nobody wants to go to jail but she was kicking at our deputies and what have you, so she was charged with resisting arrest.”
Another traffic stop came after speeding and a gun, ammunition and a lot of drugs were found. Three men were arrested on a number of charges.
Smith said, “Traffic stops is always an unknown. We never know what’s inside a vehicle as we’re approaching whether it’s nighttime or daytime. These three people were arrested Thursday following a traffic stop which a gun was found. It was a 45 caliber Glock handgun, a couple rounds of ammunition and 556 oxycodone pills and more than 20 grams of marijuana which is a felony amount and drug paraphernalia which field tested positive for cocaine. So not only did they have all the drugs with the weapons as well, so they were they were taken to the sheriff’s Airbnb again.”