Bizarre Florida

73-year-old Largo woman charged in assault on neighbor over dog
LARGO — A 73-year-old woman was arrested Tuesday, accused of punching a neighbor because she believed the man had stolen her dog, police said.
Neva Crowder Rootes was charged with burglary with assault in the incident, which happened around 11:30 p.m.
According to arrest reports, Rootes and 46-year-old Mark Andrew Baird, both of 616 Second Ave. NW, forced their way into the home of their neighbor, Richard Wilson, because they thought Wilson had taken their dog.
Rootes, who is 4-foot-11 and 123 pounds, punched Wilson in the nose and face, drawing blood, before Baird jumped on Wilson and began choking him, the reports said.
Baird was also charged with burglary with assault. They were both taken to the Pinellas County Jail in lieu of $50,000 bail each.
Wilson did not have the dog, which remains missing, Largo police said.
The report does not state the nature of the relationship between Rootes and Baird.

Son accused of mortgaging elderly mother's home for drugs, party
DADE CITY — Thomas Davis secured a $150,000 home equity line of credit on his elderly mother's home last year, authorities said.
Within seven months, he had spent it all — on drugs, on a hydroponic garden for growing marijuana, even on a $40,000 party that Davis, 47, threw for himself, according to the Pasco County Sheriff's Office.
By March, the bank began foreclosure proceedings on the home of the woman, who has Alzheimer's. And Davis, who had power of attorney as his mother's live-in caretaker, told family members he had dug a financial hole from which he couldn't escape, the Sheriff's Office said.