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Pinellas County Sheriff's Office / Pinellas County Sheriff's Office
Ana Gloria Garcia Gutierrez, 53, was arrested for riding a manatee on Sept. 30.
In 2012, Florida was a state where a lifeguard got fired for saving a life, a woman got arrested for riding a manatee and a man repeatedly used 911 as a phone sex service.
Think that's weird? It gets worse and more tragic.
In one of the state's most horrifying stories of the year, a man in Miami stripped a homeless man naked, chewing off most of his face before being fatally shot by police. And it wasn't the only story of its kind. In Manatee County, deputies used multiple Tasers to subdue a naked man who bit off part of another man's arm.
Later in the year a man won a roach-eating contest outside a Deerfield Beach pet store and then dropped dead in front of the store when body parts of the dozens of roaches he swallowed blocked his airway.
Read more news on NBCMiami.com
"We tend to be a magnet from every direction for all kinds of sketchery," said Billy Corben, a documentary film director whose works include "Cocaine Cowboys" about Miami's cocaine wars in the 1980s. "It's very late in the game where we go, 'That dude? I guess he seemed kind of weird.'"
Corben, whose "The Billy Pulpit" website compiles weird Florida news, said Floridians tend to show up in high numbers on "The Jerry Springer Show" and "America's Most Wanted." And odd stories elsewhere always seem to have a Florida tie — like former CIA director David Petraeus's extramarital affair being exposed through a Tampa socialite.
And when anti-virus software founder John McAfee ran from Belizean authorities who wanted to question him about the slaying of a neighbor, he wound up in Miami Beach, where he shopped, ate sushi and posed for photos with tourists.
"The state seems to either passively or directly endorse all of this lunacy in some way or another," Corben said.
Then again, this is the state where Gov. Rick Scott mistakenly gave the media a phone sex number to promote a meningitis hot line. After a broadcaster posted it, at least one caller was greeted with a recording of "Hello boys..." from a lusty sounding lady.
Several gaffes involved hunting Floridians.
There were the two guys in Santa Rosa County who used a bow and arrow to kill a neighbor's pet turkey, which they planned to eat on Thanksgiving. Then there was a Flagler County man who shot his girlfriend in the legs because he thought she was a wild hog.
A mother and daughter were sentenced to two months in jail for using two dogs to kill a farm-raised pig in their backyard. They posted video of the attack on Facebook, which led to their arrest.
Ah, Facebook! It caused trouble for several other Floridians. A Sarasota County man was kicked off a jury after a judge learned he sent the defendant a Facebook friend request. The juror further infuriated the judge with a Facebook post bragging about getting dismissed from jury duty. He was given three days in jail.
A Manatee County music teacher was issued a verbal warning for a Facebook conversation in which she described an 8-year-old student as the "evolutionary link between orangutans and humans." A high school science teacher also had some explaining to do when she put a cone-shaped dog collar on at least eight students and the "cone of shame" photos appeared on Facebook.
Those weren't the only strange events in Florida schools. A Plant City teacher was charged with trying to hire a hit man to kill another teacher he suspected was spreading rumors about him.
And a man showed up at his kindergartener's school to retrieve a bag of marijuana and a scale he left in the boy's backpack. More evidence that pot affects short-term memory? An 18-year-old Tampa woman was charged with DUI and marijuana possession three times in less than three weeks, the last two times on back-to-back days.
Bunnell police charged a man with riding a horse while intoxicated after he led officers on a half-hour chase, while a 52-year-old St. Petersburg woman was arrested after police found photos of her riding a manatee.
Floridians also showed that they'll steal just about anything. An Ocala woman told police thieves stole her Thanksgiving turkey from a freezer in her garage; a man was charged in Lakeland after police said he stole two swan eggs from a nest and cooked them; about 150,000 baby clams were reported stolen in Lee County; and a Miami-Dade man had 500 canaries stolen from his home.
Perhaps the oddest was a Reddick woman who drove home to find someone stole her driveway, carting away 300 square feet of brick pavers.
And it's not as if Florida authorities don't take theft seriously. A judge in Ocala sentenced a homeless man to 180 days in jail and fined him $500 for stealing $2 worth of candy.
Then there was the guy accused of selling methamphetamine in Polk County who swiped the recorder with his confession and flushed it down a toilet. The suspect told the detective, "Tighten up on your job, homie."
Even more embarrassing, a Broward County deputy was fired for repeatedly visiting strip clubs while he was on duty and wearing his uniform, sometimes skipping official calls. A West Palm Beach strip-club owner unsuccessfully sued a competing club to block the appearance of Nadya Suleman, claiming the woman best known as "Octomom" agreed to strip at his club first.
Speaking of celebrities and sex, former pro wrestler Hulk Hogan sued a DJ named Bubba the Love Sponge Clem over a secret tape of Hogan having sex with Clem's wife.
While not quite sex on tape, 911 audio recordings were released of a Tampa man who repeatedly called the emergency line and asked the operator to come over for sex.
Florida's unique wildlife always finds a way into the news. An airboat captain near Everglades City was showing an Indiana family how to feed alligators when a 9-footer bit his left hand off. Authorities later charged him with illegally feeding an alligator.
A man strolling along Pompano Beach found a giant blue eyeball and turned it over to authorities. Wildlife officials said it likely came from a swordfish.
On another South Florida beach, a lifeguard was fired for helping save a man from drowning. It turns out the man he saved was just outside the area that Hallandale Beach hired a private company to protect. The company said it was at risk once the lifeguard crossed the boundary.
In miscellaneous Florida weirdness:
— A man who won an auction for the contents of a Pensacola storage unit discovered it contained dozens of preserved human brains, hearts, lungs and other organs that had been collected by a former medical examiner.
— A man looking to repay a $400 debt took a taxi to a Jacksonville bank, robbed it and took the taxi back to his apartment. When police found him, he had changed into women's clothes.
— An 18-month-old girl was pulled off a flight in Miami because the airline thought she was on the U.S. no-fly list of suspected terrorists.
— Police in Holly Hill said a man fatally shot his roommate during an argument over how to prepare pork chops, while St. Petersburg police say a man killed his roommate over a missing corn dog.
— And finally, in what will go down in the first date from hell hall of fame, a Boca Raton police say a 35-year-old woman attacked a man with a knife and smashed his windows after he refused to say they were boyfriend and girlfriend at the end of their first date.
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It must have something to do with the sun.
It FRIED THEIR BRAINS !!!!
gm bob
What a great picture ...... a land cow on a sea cow.
heard...if your from florida...ya got'a take medication to go out of state...it's the law...
GM Bill
good set of eyes ya got there Bill after all you can tell the difference, i couldn't make out which one was which
and don't forget alan west campaign shout-out: "If ballots don't change things, then bullets will!"
It was a veryyyy good year. GM Tramp
And don't forget the story about the bearded and robed Greek Orthodox priest who got lost in Florida, stopped to ask a U.S. Marine reservist for directions, and was chased and beaten by him because the moron thought he was a Muslim "terrorist". The courts of course found him "not guilty". (Oops - sorry - this happened in 2009. Seems like yesterday.)
I live in Florida and it is a very weird state. Let's not forget the guy who shot into a car full of unarmed kids, killing one of them, because their radio was too loud. His defense: Florida's ridiculous stand-your-ground law! Or the guy who planned to kill his girlfriend because she wasn't conservative enough. Or, the guy whose company stole millions from Medicare but instead of doing jail time.....got elected Governor!!
Yes, Rick Scott sure is an embarrassment to the state!
I wonder what type of mischef they could find in washington state. or california or texas
Florida is not the only place that has wierd things happen there, granted that eating face is kinda wierd
Sure, there are weirdos in every state, but Florida wins First Place!
I would add after reading many stories this year the great state of Texas is a close second.
That's one thing I miss about living there. No matter what else, it was always entertaining.
.............and don't forget, the highest percentage of felons, the most registered pedophiles, 40 percent of all the people on welfare in the US, and countless other notable accomplishments.
I Binged welfare "recipient by state" and this is what came up first.
Rank States Amount
# 1
California:
1,085,627
# 5
California:
3.005 per 100 people
Californian Economy
# 2
New York:
341,004
# 20
New York:
1.771 per 100 people
New Yorker Economy
# 3
Texas:
333,435
# 28
Texas:
1.459 per 100 people
Texan Economy
# 4
Pennsylvania:
207,429
# 23
Pennsylvania:
1.669 per 100 people
Pennsylvanian Economy
# 5
Michigan:
202,469
# 13
Michigan:
2.001 per 100 people
Michigander Economy
# 6
Ohio:
188,108
# 24
Ohio:
1.641 per 100 people
Ohioan Economy
# 7
Tennessee:
180,466
# 4
Tennessee:
3.026 per 100 people
Tennessean Economy
# 8
Washington:
140,721
# 10
Washington:
2.238 per 100 people
Washingtonian Economy
# 9
Indiana:
140,571
# 9
Indiana:
2.241 per 100 people
Hoosier Economy
# 10
Georgia:
132,003
# 29
Georgia:
1.455 per 100 people
Georgian Economy
# 11
Florida:
119,080
# 52
Florida:
0.669 per 100 people
Floridian Economy
# 12
Arizona:
111,334
# 16
Arizona:
1.875 per 100 people
Arizonan Economy
# 13
Missouri:
108,561
# 17
Missouri:
1.872 per 100 people
Economy
# 14
Massachusetts:
108,469
# 22
Massachusetts:
1.695 per 100 people
Bay Stater Economy
# 15
New Jersey:
101,854
# 37
New Jersey:
1.168 per 100 people
New Jerseyan Economy
# 16
Illinois:
99,952
# 50
Illinois:
0.783 per 100 people
Illinoisan Economy
# 17
Minnesota:
93,665
# 19
Minnesota:
1.825 per 100 people
Minnesotan Economy
# 18
North Carolina:
83,906
# 44
North Carolina:
0.966 per 100 people
Economy
# 19
Kentucky:
76,688
# 18
Kentucky:
1.838 per 100 people
Economy
# 20
Virginia:
70,199
# 45
Virginia:
0.928 per 100 people
Virginian Economy
# 21
Maryland:
GWW-3164616
Attaboy GWW when you have no real facts or numbers make em up as you go
1 in 10 wall-mart shoppers...has a cat that use the shopper's clothes...for a urinal...only in florida is it considered...and improvement...
and about 50% of those walmart shoppers actually BELONG in those "people of walmart" photos.....
Wiliam of Rites,
You know what I noticed about your numbers? Even in those states with the highest numbers, the amount didn't exceed 3% of the population. Given the fact that many welfare recipients are either elderly or women with young children, this doesn't seem very high to me. The right wing keeps whining about 47% of the population being "takers" on welfare, "baby mommas" and minorities. But I'm not looking at anything like 47% here. It seems to me that 97% of the population can probably afford to subsidize 3% of the population who can't work for a variety of reasons.
She's doing porn films now also. I guess her book about how to be a great providing mom is on hold.
I live in Florida, and everything that was stated on this thread is absolutely true. The writer left the Wierdest thing of all out. We elected Scot, a known criminal to be our Governor. Maybe it is the sun, and the water. By the way, today it is Seventy three degrees today, and Eighties the rest of the week. I would like to stay and chat with you northerners, but I have to mow the grass and then go to the Beach for lunch. Happy New Year.
I'll toast you from the top of Sugarloaf that just got 2 feet of new snow, good luck avoiding skin cancer!!
lol thanks. I shall be dressed in layers strolling along the snow dunes with my lab, Socks. At least she enjoys rolling in the sea of white.
i'll be in backwoods arkansas drink'n shine...and watch'n it rain...happy new year...
think i will just stay here and console the Miami Dolphins and Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders...poor girls....
Lucky wascigarman, I gotta work :(
What's funny to me is that all of the other 49 states are north of you (even Texas doesn't go as far south as Florida), so from your perspective, we're all "northerners"!
Happy New Year to you too!
And stay AWAY from my corn dogs, or I'll shoot yoass.
wow just wow - I thought my state of Tennessee would be the leader in stupidity - I guess we are only ignorant and racist. And we certainly deserve that title
so your upset that TN didn't get an unflattering review and made fun of ? what's the matter with you?
.....oh just seen your posting name....never mind.
People who would send someone like Allan West to Congress are capable of anything. It must be something in the drinking water.
And don't forget, our former Governor, Bush, wants to be President, since he has done such a fabulous job of educating young Floridians!
"our" former Governor..." your" Floridians?.... so where did you attend school?...Chicago perhaps?
GM Scooter and Happy New Year!
funny, how people use 3rd person when referring to themselves, while dissing other people/places. I read that things that people hate the most that they see in other people or places, are those similar things that they do themselves!
Remember, when they point the finger at someone else, those other fingers are pointing back at themselves!
Happy New Year Jack.
Its in the Lib logic 101 handbook, under "blame game" chapter 2 , section 3.
Not withstanding of course the Bush reference, which we all know of course is covered in Chapter 1 pages 1 through 25000.
Scooter
My descriptor is page 1 through ad infitum
We also have the highest number of pain pill OD in the nation 11,500 counting but yet more the half the state care if we tax and legalize marijuana and don't get me started on the fact i can't walk two blocks with out seeing a strip club so let me get this strait don't smoke a harmless''cash crop'' or grow it but it perfectly fine for little suzy to shake her ass for money or a mother and daughter team can make porn movies together i @!$%# you not they talk a good game about good old family value's down hear but all i see is bull@!$%#
put down the bong...it evidently doesn't react well with your pain and other meds.
Oxycodones and marijuana are not even on the same level but yet in this state they give the ladder out like candy to people and for the strip club thing its just sad to me half those girl look like they just needed a hug growing up and some look like they been hug on too much.Then there is the high-speed rail that our great thinking Governor Scott turn down wtf has anybody on this blog been stuck in traffic going to Orlando to Tampa it's a nightmare if one crash happens
,I do declare, there were times when I was so lonesome
I took some comfort there
Lie la lie ...
( S&G ..."The Boxer" )
The problem with Florida is that all the trash from NY and the NE, along with the Haitians, Jamaicans and Cubans have taken over. A real native Florida is almost nowhere to be found because we've been run off by the trash that has taken over.
so can we send you our illegals ....er i mean... " undocumented workers"... as well?
Do it and I'll shoot them as they cross the Florida/Georgia or Florida/Alabama line.
Ya got a deal....but what about.....
Wouldn't you be invoking the very same law YOU regard as "ridiculous" in Post 4 ?......
opps differnet TonyJ on post 4 TonyJ (buncha numbers) instead of TonyJ ( two numbers)
...sorry
ya still got a deal though.
Native Floridians? Do you mean Native Americans?
That's what the Seminoles said.
Bunch of chads. Half on or half off?
I would like to add that very, very few are from Florida. Most come from other states, all northern in fact,(ha) to bless Fla. with the opportunity to incarcerate them. A good number of actual Floridians work either in Law Enforcement or the Criminal Justice System. So please remember that just because you or your crazy releatives move to Florida does not make them true Floridians. You have to have at least a couple of generations where they were born and raised in Florida. Most of the GOOD jobs are around and because of the HEAVY military presence all over Fla. and for that matter the south in general.
So if you look into this a bit further you'll find that Tenn. still probably has its share of stupid people as does the rest of the country but if any state is missing any its a good bet that you might find them in Fla.
Cuba, Haiti, and Jamaica are not north nor is any of south America..... Mexico is to your west and Apu Mohamed and their bunch are east. ....google ....'map'
I bet you're one of the "snowbirds" that comes down here every year and bitches about how this and that is so much better where you come from. If things are so great in New Yawk or the NE, why do you ever leave home?
You speaking to me tony? .as for Florida been there a few times though and enjoyed it. especially the last trip where i flew over and shat on your car....
Actually I am from Fla., born and raised and unless they have recently built some sort of highway from Cuba, Haiti, or Jamaica and somehow gained statehood I believe you have made a mistake with your references sir/mam. In regards to South America, it is possible to drive to Fla. from there but you initially drive nothwest for quite a ways then northeast once in Texas get on I-10 and then due east southeast. By the way check your maps once more and you'll see that there is no other U.S. state that is more southern than Key West Fla., not even Brownsville Texas. You might also check your history along with how one gets from the middle east to Fla. usually from a northern state like New York, Chicago etc.
Oh and please don't forget your appt., you know the one.
Where was the criminal in the state house born?
This is getting interesting, some of the comments are proving the point of the article.
( ....there is no other U.S. state the is more southern than Key West.... )
When did Key West become a State ?
How can a place be called " more southern" ?
Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought that southern was an attitude or a way of life.
RI, just another resident of the Sunshine State demonstrating the "quality" of public education in Florida.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/the-40-most-insane-things-that-happened-in-florida
Enough said.
respond to links posted on a discussion site by someone you do not know.?..... ( or those stupid ads for that matter) .....?.......nuff said.
Sounds like new book plot ideas for the next Tim Dorsey book. I can't wait for Serge and Colman to ride a manatee.
Exactly what I was thinking!
I was born and raised most of my life in Florida. The culture (using that word lightly) in Florida is that of the Wild West mixed with the Deep South (minus the politeness) and various Latin and Caribbean cultures. My family had moved from the Midwest right before I was born and I heard from my mom and my grandmother how rude that locals were. As well, we always had the specter of child abductions and molestation seeming to lurk behind the bushes. It seems that warm weather just attracts a bad bunch of people............and worse, makes good people turn. I have seen various members of my family simply fall apart while relatives back in the Midwest have thrived. It's a cursed place, I think. Thank God I left.
I lived in Florida for more than a decade, but it never had as much trouble and crime as when Rick - Skeletor - Scott came into office. Before I moved out of the state, I thought daily murders and multiple burglaries were commonplace. Wow, how untrue that is. I'm glad to be out of the great cesspool and hapless morass that is contemporary Florida!
And the Florida state legislature in their infinite wisdom made it easy for all of the crazies we have in Florida to carry concealed firearms. The place is nuts.
I am apalled that the author forgot to mention that Florida was Irrelevant in the last Presidential Election. I do know why we did not get our votes counted in time to be Relevant. We held back our vote numbers in case it was close, and then we could have changed those numbers to benefit the Republican running. I am not kidding, but since it was a Land Slide for Obama, we turned in the correct numbers and Florida went for Obama.
The
Smartest & Dumbest U.S. States
1. Vermont 2. Massachusetts 3. Connecticut 4. New Jersey 5. Maine 6. Virginia 7. Montana 8. Wisconsin 9. Iowa 10. Pennsylvania 11. Nebraska 12. New Hampshire 13. Minnesota 14. Rhode Island 15. Kansas 16. New York 17. South Dakota 18. Maryland 19. Wyoming 20. Idaho 21. North Dakota 22. Missouri 23. North Carolina 24. Indiana 25. Texas 26. South Carolina 27. Colorado 28. Delaware 29. Florida 30. Tennessee 31. Kentucky 32. Arkansas 33. Washington 34. Ohio 35. Illinois 36. Oklahoma 37. West Virginia 38. Utah 39. Michigan 40. Oregon 41. Georgia 42. Hawaii 43. New Mexico 44. Louisiana 45. Alabama 46. Alaska 47. California 48. Mississippi 49. Nevada 50. Arizona
So I guess we might consider staying away from the cactus juice and Black Jack tables.
Got this survey from: List after List .com
Then you list a bunch of states
so which is which?...
Vermont is listed first because the pollsters only spoke to the one native Vermonter that can actually read and write.
Forget about the US-Mexico border fence. We should fence off Florida from the rest of us.
Good idea just keep all Politicans, Freeloaders and members of the left wing Conspiracy out and send them to Congress where they will fit in
You do realize that native Floridians (people born there) comprise only 8% of the total population.
The population from the North East has the highest population in the state. You know those people from NY, NJ, MA, etc. Next comes the population from the Mid-West.
Then you have the legal or illegal immigration populations from Cuba, Mexico, Haiti, Brazil and other countries.
Pretty much a varied melting pot. Apparently , you think thats a bad thing??
We are currently enjoying a larger than normal population surge from the NE . Perhaps you should stop them before they cross the GA/FL border. For their own good of course.
Right after we lance that boil on the nation known as NJ . . .