Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM yesterday morning to talk about what’s going on in the county.
The weekend was a busy one with a number of events.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “I love spending time with the community and citizens. The highlight surely was the Wounded Warrior event. What a great event to spend time with those veterans who have sacrificed so much. We had about 44 veterans. We started off in Key Largo at the VFW, had a chance to spend time with them, shake their hands, talk to them a little bit, gave them all a little pep talk before they hit the roads. Then we work to make sure we escorted them throughout the Keys, making it safe and secure, as we do each and every year, trying to make this event the best it can for them, as best it can be for the rest of the community, who just loves the Warriors when they come down. So we love being part of this.”
How was the Save our First Responders 5K run?
Sheriff Ramsay said, “Really nice turnout, so I was pleasantly surprised. And about the year one, sometimes getting going is hard in the first year, but it was a great turnout, beautiful day for that event. That was nice to see everybody get together there and honor the first responders.”
A 19 year old Key Largo man, who is on probation for improper display of a firearm in 2024, was arrested again after sending a picture of what appeared to be a firearm to a family member during a domestic dispute.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “This young man is on probation from a 2024, road rage incident where he brandished a gun during road rage. So on probation, and he lives with his mom. He wants to use the mother’s car. He’s not on the insurance, and a mother says, no, you cannot use the car. Would not give him the keys. He got angry, and he sent her a text picture holding a gun, and next to him was a loaded magazine, and made physical, electronic threats to her, and then threatened her with this gun, and then threatened to come back and do damage to the home. The mother came home to find the house damaged, doors destroyed, TV destroyed. We got contacted. We got called, we came out. We ultimately determined we believe the gun was an airsoft gun, but that the magazine with the ammunition was real. We found a loaded magazine with 223 caliber rifle rounds, bags of nine millimeter rounds. The Glock magazine, he’s not allowed to be in possession of ammunition or guns because of his road rage incident. But this is your mother’s house that you’re going to come and destroy because she won’t let you use her car because you’re not on her insurance. So sad to see this. Sometimes kids are just so terrible to their parents, and forget how much parents have sacrificed to bring them into this world and give them a chance at life. And it’s sad to see. This kid appears to be just anger management, got a lot of issues, and hope that he can get his stuff together. But boy, this is a sad day for a family, for sure, to see this kind of crap going on.”
A 22 year old from Key West Florida was arrested for burglarizing and ransacking a Stock Island residence.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “Not the smartest guy I don’t think. He went to a house on Seventh Avenue. A maintenance worker had seen him go in and then come out of the house on the property. So later on, we got a pretty good description of who we’re looking for, or at least clothing wise and he went in and ransacked the house, went through, stole a bunch of items, clothing, iPods, different stuff, but did a lot of damage to his home while inside. So we got a call, we came out, we got a pretty good description of the person of clothing. What was stolen. We put a BOLO out, be on the lookout for, to our officers, plus also Key West police. He was located down in Key West wearing the stolen property. And then we did find other stolen property on his person when he was stopped and detained, including iPods, clothing and other related stuff, he was identified by the maintenance worker who gave us positive IDs to his identity, so we’re able to close that case out pretty quickly and hold him accountable. But not the smartest burglar, I don’t think.”
An animal cruelty case happened in Big Coppitt Key where three underweight and dehydrated dogs were discovered.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “This was a SPCA case which started around New Year’s, when one of the dogs was found wandering, found to be in terrible condition. SPCA started the case. We were called in to help aid and assist. We did go to the residence. We did locate three dogs which were in terrible condition. Were not being fed. Were not being taken care of, not given proper shelter. Had medical issues. All three had ringworm, other medical related stuff, fleas, no veterinary services being administered, emaciated, just really in tough condition. So the SPCA did take these dogs into protective custody. We’ve determined that there was cause to believe that animal cruelty was occurring. We did charge Mr. Sargent from Big Coppitt these three counts of animal cruelty and try to get these dogs taken care of. They were sent to a vet that had to do extensive work on all three animals due to the conditions they were in. So it’s just sad. If you’re not going to take care of animals, just don’t have them. If you’re going to have them, you have to take that responsibility to take care of these animals who can’t take care of themselves. It’s a shame to see that, heartbreaking.”
A woman was arrested last week for theft of about $3,000 of marble tiles from a property owner on Bayshore Drive. Then a Homestead man attempted to cash a stolen check from his employer multiple times.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “A resident was doing some work at their house, and they had some really expensive marble tiles. He noticed some of his marble tiles were missing from the construction site. And then a week or two later, he comes to catch a truck loading up marble tiles. It’s a 67 year old female who lives pretty close by, who he confronts, and she unloads the marble tiles back after he catches her, back on the property, we get called. We come out, he tells us about the incident, gives us information about the driver the vehicle, says he’s had other missing tiles that were stolen. We go back to her residence, confront her, we find the other marble tiles that she had taken to do some work around her house. So theft from a construction site, but that’s pretty expensive marble. It was valued to a few $1,000 worth of marble tiles. So it just sad but quick, easy resolve, held very accountable, got the tiles back to the owner. The other case, yes, this is a landscape company. This is a worker who stole a check from his boss, the landscape company, and tried to cash it a couple times at two different banks, went in to try to cash it, and both times, the banks rejected him, thinking that it was fraudulent in nature. We ultimately did get a call. We ultimately did track down this individual. We got some good surveillance camera footage from the banks and determined that he had tried to cash these checks that did not belong to him. So we were able to arrest him, hold him accountable, and thankfully the banks did not cash those checks, so no one’s out the money.
The sheriff’s office donated two vehicles to the Guidance Care Center recently, as well as a number of Keys’ charities with the silent auction over the holidays.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “We continue to say commitment to community is one of our foundations of the sheriff’s office. So we want to do what we can to help aid and assist others. Yes, we donated two cars to the Guidance Care Center. These are transport cars, and they’re such a good part to the sheriff’s office and this community. So we want to help where we can. And then the other organizations we donated money was from seized property from our property room, property that was being disposed of. We try to use that property periodically to give to nonprofits to do good stuff, nonprofits that we support, that we think need the funds. So we did identify those three organizations, which are just outstanding organizations, and we had a big yard sale with those organizations who ran them, and we’re going to split the proceeds of those. So each organization got some money to do good stuff and keep doing the work. It’s a difficult year for the nonprofits for a lot of reasons, and there’s more and more demand. The nonprofits provide critical service to the citizens who are in need. So we’re just glad to be part of that something good and help others. And we want to be a good partner to everybody else, like we want people to be a good partner to us. We want to be a good partner to them.”