Crime & Safety

OMG PD: Garden Gnome, Fillet Knife, Grill Scraper Used as Weapons

We compile the odd, unusual "oh my gosh" police items from throughout the Tampa Bay region.

An intoxicated man wielding a fillet knife attacked a bartender and injured three customers Sunday night at an Indian Rocks Beach bar, according to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.

James Klingbeil, 50, of Belleair Beach, had been turned away at the Red Lion Pub, 1407 Gulf Blvd., earlier in the evening because he was already "highly intoxicated," deputies said.

After getting into an argument with the staff, according to a sheriff's report, Klingbeil went to a grocery store a few blocks away and bought a fillet knife. He then came back to the bar, where he got into an altercation with 32-year-old bartender Rebecca Shaeffer, at some point pulling out the knife and attacking her with it, deputies said.

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Three bar patrons then attempted to help Schaeffer, getting injured in the process and eventually taking Klingbeil to the ground and taking away his knife, the sheriff's office said.

A 47-year-old Gulfport woman faces a charge of domestic battery and harassing a victim, after Gulfport Police allege that she used a garden gnome to strike a man on the head.

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The Tampa Bay Times reports that Lisa Buckley, who lives on the 5400 block of 29th Ave. South, was in an argument with a man at her home on Sunday.

Buckley allegedly threw some items at the unnamed victim and then picked up a New Orleans Saints garden gnome, which she used to strike the man in the head.

The man was bleeding from the ear and head when police arrived, but did not want medical attention, according to Gulfport police.

Buckley allegedly fled the home before police arrived.

Police: Suspect Attacked Man with Grill Scraper

A Treasure Island man has been charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon after police say he hit another man with a broken grill scraper. 

Kenneth Sugg, 50, was taken into custody around 9 p.m. on May 9. 

According to the arrest affidavit, the victim was walking to his home from a 7-Eleven store when Sugg confronted him. Police said Sugg then attacked him with the grill scraper, hitting the victim in the face, forearm, hand, shin and knee. 

Sugg, according to Treasure Island Police, said he grabbed the grill scraper from a truck and hit the victim "after being kicked in the testicles twice" first by the victim. 

Cops: Black Bear Took Up Roost in Tree

Hillsborough County Sheriff’s deputies do more than catch bad guys and protect and serve people.

There are days when they also safeguard residents from local wildlife run amok, or vice versa.

That was the case May 17 as deputies from the District III area reported to the scene of a wildlife call. A black bear, about 250 pounds in heft, had climbed a tree at 2817 Broad St.

Deputies kept watch while the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conversation Commission deployed officers to help. Those officers used tranquilizer darts to get the bear out of the tree, The Tampa Tribune reported.

A Sarasota woman is charged with defrauding her employer of more than $56,000, authorities said Tuesday.

An internal audit at Tampa's Broadspire, which handles workers' compensation claims for employers and insurance companies, found that 37-year-old Joanne Bell was involved in the theft of tens of thousands of dollars, according to the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office.

The investigation revealed that Bell, who worked as a claims examiner, issued four checks in a client’s name but mailed them to her post office box in Sarasota, according to a sheriff's office spokesperson said. The client noticed something was off on a 1099 tax form and alerted the company. 

Thirty-five checks totaling $56,195.66 were sent to Bell and deposited into her Chase Bank account between November 2011 and January 2013, sheriff's spokesperson Wendy Rose said.

A Riverview woman was arrested after Tampa Police say she embezzled more than $300,000 from a Tampa company. She used the money to pay for cars, trips and daycare for her children, police say.

Anastasia Wynne Beck, 40, was arrested this morning, May 21 for crimes that police say she committed from 2007 to 2010 while working as an accountant for Power Electric Services in Tampa.

After an investigation that lasted two years, Tampa Police arrested Beck at her home on Copperhead Drive in Riverview at around 6:15 a.m. She is charged with second-degree grand theft.

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