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Sleeping with gun in public is unwise
© St. Petersburg Times Note to tired motorists: Don't fall asleep in a 7-Eleven parking lot with a sawed-off shotgun in the back seat. Not in Hillsborough County. Around midnight on Oct. 5, Hillsborough sheriff's deputies got a call about a suspicious person in the 7-Eleven parking lot at U.S. 301 and Big Bend Road. When Deputy Daryl Bowden of District 4 arrived, he found James Voytek Jr. asleep in a car. He also found a sawed-off 20-gauge shotgun with the serial numbers rubbed off, both of which are against the law. Voytek woke up and told deputies that he was on his way from Tennessee to his home in Vero Beach. Bowden said Voytek had a strong odor of alcohol on his breath. Voytek was unable to produce his driver's license. "He said he didn't have his driver's license because it was revoked for DUI," said sheriff's spokesman Rod Reder. FISHING TRIP GONE WRONG: Even worse than drinking and sleeping in a 7-Eleven parking lot is drinking and boating. Doug Capen learned that lesson in the worst way possible. His family is suing the Land's End Marina and Circles At Land's End Restaurant and Bar in Apollo Beach. According to the suit filed last week in Hillsborough Circuit Court, Capen, a 51-year-old private investigator, was drinking with a friend at the marina on an October morning two years ago. "(Capen) frequented the marina often, and the employees, including the employee serving (Capen) . . were familiar with (his) heavy drinking habits," the suit states. After becoming "clearly intoxicated," according to the lawsuit, Capen asked the marina to remove his boat from storage and prepare it for a fishing trip. The employees did. They also suggested that Capen's friend operate the boat. The friend said he had no idea how, and the employees said "it's just like driving a car," the suit states. Later that day, the friend ran the boat into a sandbar. Capen was thrown overboard and drowned. THEY'VE BEEN BLESSED: Two Tampa police horses had a more tranquil assignment last week than their usual Ybor City party patrols. Sequence and D'Artagnon were blessed during the annual Blessing of the Animals at the Franciscan Center in Tampa. "They actually got an extra blessing because they're police horses," said Officer Mike Kochom, who rode Sequence to the ceremony. "For courage and protection." The two quarter horses were the largest animals at the service, Kochom reported. They also were among the best behaved. "He loves people," said D'Artagnon's handler, Officer Ellen Schantz. Sequence even enjoyed a bottle of Diet Pepsi while waiting in line. Sequence and D'Artagnon were donated to the department two years ago by a Hillsborough County sheriff's deputy. IT'S OUR FAULT?:: Convicted felon David Wiggins insists a story in the St. Petersburg Times prevented him from getting a bail bond set by a judge. Hmmm. So the fact that Wiggins had escaped from the Orient Road Jail in April had nothing to do with it? Nope, said Wiggins. He maintains that he did not actually, technically, really escape. "They let me out," Wiggins, 41, told a reporter last week. On April 3, Wiggins put on a uniform for trusted inmates and walked out a series of doors. He was missing for 12 days. Wiggins said that he could have worn a "karat gold uniform" and deputies wouldn't have stopped him. "I still would have gotten out and that's the truth," he said. Wiggins said an Aug. 13 story in the Times that detailed his escape made it seem as though he bragged about his flight to reporters. He thinks that's the reason the judge refused to set bail. -- Times staff writers Brady Dennis, Janel Stephens and Sue Carlton contributed to this report.
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Times columns today Tampa Uncuffed Mary Jo Melone |
