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Watch out: This burglar is no bungler
© St. Petersburg Times
Tonight, before you close your eyes and surrender the day, ponder this: Someone could pad softly into your home, past the deep, even breathing of your slumber, and survey your stuff. Your television. VCR. Loose change. Watch. That person, Ninja clothed, would then carry away aforementioned stuff, leaving you to later awaken, bereft and belligerent. It CAN happen to you. Because if it can happen to a cop, it can happen to anybody. Hillsborough sheriff's deputies have dusted off the term "cat burglar" to describe the person who struck five homes in southeast Hillsborough County this week, surreptitiously tucking away personal property while victims slept. One of those victims, a sheriff's deputy, awakened shortly after 7:30 a.m. to discover that his home had been burgled during the night. On one occasion, barking dogs awakened the homeowner, who found only an open window. On another, an alert husband chased the suspect outside, where the man got away. He was described only as a male wearing dark clothing who drove off in a small gray or silver car with tinted windows. "Sneaky and quiet" is how Sgt. Ira Arman describes him, yet opportunistic. The cat burglar has slipped into homes through unlocked windows, doors and garages. Despite the lack of force, Sgt. Arman predicts trouble: "There's always the potential of a confrontation," he said. "We all like to think we're secure when we're sleeping." So lock your doors, windows and garages, he warns, and do away with idealistic notions. Call 911 if you see someone suspicious in your neighborhood. "Don't be so trusting." APPETIZING PROSE: Judges, particularly those on appellate courts, spend a lot of time crawling through meticulously researched, dry-as-dust legal rulings . . . and writing them. But once in a while, a bright bloom appears in the desert of legal prose. Consider the opening of a ruling Friday in a divorce case, from the august 2nd District Court of Appeal: "Jerald K. Carlton, the former husband, signed a blank check in 1986 expecting to pay for chuck roast and banana pudding. He now appeals the trial court's finding that the intended use for the check was filet mignon and creme brulee." No, it's not really a dispute about food. The ex-husband was arguing he shouldn't have to pay $47,264 to educate his daughter at a private, out-of-state university. When he agreed to share her educational expenses in his 1986 divorce, he claimed he had a state-supported school in mind. The appeals court said he had to pay anyway. "I kind of felt sorry for the guy, but I wanted to make the point," said John R. Blue, the court's chief judge, who authored the ruling with the culinary analogy. "Once in a while, to make a point, you do something like that. I just hope Mr. Carlton isn't offended." In a prior ruling, Blue chastised lawyers for treating a trial, in his words, as a shootout at the OK Corral. A 10-year veteran of the appeals court, Blue is 68 and plans to retire in a year and a half. "Maybe I'm getting a little more daring in my old age," he said. HENCE THE TERM 'EXCLUSIVE': On Monday night, when a bug bomb exploded inside a refrigerator at a Hunter's Green apartment complex, Tampa Fire Rescue Capt. Bill Wade -- the agency's spokesman -- rushed to the scene. Wade did his job. He took pictures of the damage, gathered facts and talked to other firefighters. That's when he noticed that something was missing. "There's no news media," he said. The Hunter's Green subdivision is a gated, private community. Security guards stand at the entrances, and on that Monday night, they refused to let most of the media inside. Somehow, a local TV station and another daily newspaper were able to get in, although one member of the community's crime watch called police on the TV station. The rest of the Tampa Bay reporters were left at the entrance gates. "I have never been in a situation where the media have been kept that far away," said Wade, chuckling. "I couldn't tell if it was a curse or a blessing. I'm still trying to figure that out." -- Staff writer Tamara Lush contributed to this report. If you have a tip about courts, call Christopher Goffard at 226-3337 or goffard@sptimes.com. If you have a tip about cops, call Amy Herdy at 226-3386 or herdy@sptimes.com.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
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Times columns today Gary Shelton Ernest Hooper Tampa Uncuffed Robert Trigaux |
