Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in the county.
The weekend was a busy one with holiday events.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “Over the holidays, I’m really busy. I’ve got so many events. I try to make as many as I can, to be seen, be visible, be accessible. So I did have events on Thursday. Friday night I was on Pigeon Key for an event. Saturday night at two parties, I had to go to an Islamorada state attorney’s office party, another party, and that was a good time dodging the rain. That was an outside event, so we were under tents. That was interesting. Sunday was Christmas on the farm. So we always love the sheriff’s office Christmas on the farm event, and I was down there for that for a couple hours with my team members and tonight I’ll be in Key Largo for the lighting of the Menorah at the Murray Nelson government center. So this time of year, it’s it’s almost every night, I and others have events that we’re trying to make and again, be everywhere, support everything and be visible and accessible.”
Two women were arrested a few days ago for stealing more than $2,000 worth of groceries from Winn Dixie on Big Pine Key.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “Shoplifting is becoming more and more prevalent, and we’re seeing more and more high dollar shoplifting events. Before we would see people just take a few minor things. We’re seeing people now that are more bold and brazen, whether it be in grocery stores or Home Depots, to actually load up shopping carts with this super high, expensive stuff and just brazenly walk right past and walk right out and not even worrying about anybody seeing or questioning them. And I think store employees are more concerned about confronting people, because a lot of businesses don’t want people confronting customers, and if they do, you’re trying to protect the store. It’s not uncommon for the store to fire you because you confronted somebody. So it’s, I think, a little bit easier in that aspect there. In Big Pine, they did have these two young ladies, two Spanish ladies, one from Stock Island and one from out of county, that were shopping and filling up two shopping carts looking very suspicious, and they saw them leave, go right out the store. Never go to check out, go out to the parking lot. They were observed loading $2,354 worth of two full shopping carts of high value stuff into an SUV. The vehicle was identified by the persons who are monitoring. They called us. By the time we got there, they had left, but we put out a BOLO, be on the look out for, and we did locate the vehicle coming into Stock Island, stopped it. It had the two ladies. We had the car full of all the groceries in question. Good surveillance footage, video from Winn Dixie. We did arrest both these people for grand theft and recovered the stolen property. So good job by my team members. But this is becoming more and more prevalent.”
Scams are also more prevalent this time of year.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “It’s more and more prevalent, especially during the holidays. These scams, we say, just hang up and call whoever it is they’re pretending to be. You’re going to find out 99% of the time it’s a scam. Someone trying to get your money. They’re trying to put pressure. They’re trying to scare you with fears of fines or jails. At the end of the day, they only need one person to give them their personal information. They can wipe out your account, same thing with toll tickets and other related stuff. You would get something in the mail from DHS, MV and you can check online. There’s so many ways to identify if you are being scammed, but at the end of the day, just hang up, just call the person that they alleged to be or the company, and you’ll be able to straighten things out pretty quickly. We are always concerned about that for sure.”
A recent theft of an e-bike was reported from Stock Island marina.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “Good surveillance systems really help us out a lot here. We got a call from the Marina, a rental place out there. We went out there for the report of a stolen e-bike and some other related stuff. We took the report, we looked at some video. We figured out the jacket, the hat, the e-bike that was taken. We got really good description on what they look like. We had a description of the person who stole it on video. A short time later, we were put out a be on the lookout to all our troops with the pictures, information our Crime Intelligence Unit submitted the stuff out so all our people know what we’re looking for. Then on patrol, we see someone matching the description, who’s riding an e-bike and also has a jacket and hat, all of which are consistent with what was stolen. We do stop this person, we identify that this is the stolen e-bike from Stock Island, the jacket and the hat and whatnot. So we do arrest this person for a burglary and grand theft with charges there too. So really good case between video surveillance and good information in the field to our troops and officers being alert and present and looking and trying to identify these people. So really, really, good job. We’re glad to get that case closed pretty quickly.”
A man was recently arrested for harboring a runaway juvenile from from Douglas County, Georgia, who had been missing for about a month.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “We were contacted by the authorities out of Georgia who identified that a runaway juvenile they believe was here in the Key West Stock Island area. Her phone was pinging around the Stock Island area. So we worked closely with them to try to identify the location, who lived there. We find this young lady. Did a little bit of surveillance. We eventually contacted the resident, the 25 year old male who initially told us that the young lady was staying here, met her at a bus stop. She needed a place to stay on a couch. Let her stay for a couple of days, but she was long gone. Didn’t know where she was at, so we continued the investigation, along with Georgia and determined that phone continued to ping there. We determined that he was just lying, that obviously he was harboring her. We eventually did get inside. Did locate this young lady. Was determined that she was not sleeping on the couch. She was actually sharing the same bed with this individual. So we’re not sure what took place there, still under investigation, but we did recover her. Ultimately, we did prove that we had proof that he had knowledge of her being underage through a few different means, and that he was back harboring our runaway juvenile. So we did take her into protective custody, turned her over department juvenile justice, DCF services, to work out with Georgia to get her back to her family in Georgia. We had her put on a plane, and we had authorities in Georgia waiting at the airport to make sure that she couldn’t run away again until she was turned back over to her family. And yes, we did arrest this 25 year old male. We’re going to hold him accountable and try to deter other people from doing such stupid stuff.”
A silent auction is coming up.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “It’s sweet treats and silent bids. December 19. It’s from 4:30 to 7:30 at the Fort East Martello towers, and it’s going to be a lot of property that came out of the sheriff’s office of our property division, that we would dispose of. So this is anywhere for jewelries and watches and power tools and your dive gear and type stuff, and it’s a wine and cooking pairing event. This is benefiting Womankind, benefiting the bird sanctuary in Upper Keys and Key Largo and Art and Historical Society. So if our listeners want to go out there and take a look see if anything, they want help support some really good causes, I always want to thank my team members of the sheriff’s office who are trying to do their part to help aid and assist to raise money for nonprofits.”