Only in Florida minute for April 23rd, 2014

     If you take anything away from this post, it should be that you might not want to mess with senior citizens.

Woman gets eyeful from would-be purse snatcher

     An unidentified 64-year-old lady got quite the eye full this past Sunday when, according to police, 25-year-old Michael Gallo attempted to steal her purse. As she exited her vehicle, Gallo grabbed the woman's purse, and attempted to run off with it. However, he didn't get far. 

     Intent on keeping her purse, the woman stood her ground against Gallo. As the pair struggled over the purse, the woman went as far as punching the would be purse snatcher.

     Eventually Gallo had enough and let go of the purse and began to run off. Yet, he wasn't content to part with out loosing one final offence at the woman. Gallo loosened a sweatshirt that had been bound around his waist, and exposed his genitals to the woman. Gallo then raised both his middle fingers and cursed at the woman before he escaped.

     Gallo didn't make it far. He was apprehended by police only three blocks away, and was positively identified by the woman as her attacker. Gallo was charged with attempted robbery by sudden snatching and lewd and lascivious exhibition for this incident, and also faces charges for soliciting in public related to a different incident. 

     Jacksonville man, 89, arrested after son-in-law shot in TV dispute, dare

     An 89-year-old Jacksonville man, Kenon Lee Ferguson faces charges of aggravated battery after a dispute with his 59-year-old son-in-law, Joel Edward Perry, over watching television. Ferguson reportedly told his son-in-law that “you don't own anything in this house,” to which Perry allegedly replied, "do something about it".

     Apparently deciding to do just that, Ferguson went to his bedroom and retrieved his .38 caliber pistol. After this, the fight between Ferguson and Perry escalated. At some point Ferguson fired off a round, hitting Perry in the leg. Officers arrived around 7:30 p.m., and took Ferguson into custody. 

     Perry and his wife, Ferguson's daughter, were living at the residence when the incident occurred. However, records show that the the house is in Ferguson's name.  

     

Only in Florida 8/21/2013

       Stuffing a purloined item down your pants to hide detection is nothing new. People have be caught trying to get away with all kinds of things by showing their desired item down their pants when they think no one is looking. An Orlando man is being sought after he used this method to procure something a bit more lively than a CD or a DVD. The currently unknown man is wanted for walking out of a pet store with a pair of puppies shoved down his pants.

     The unknown man can be seen on security camera footage entering the pet store with another man, a woman, and a small toddler. Using the woman and the toddler, as well as the large crowd in the store, as distractions, the puppy thief, relied on the other man to serve as his lookout. While no one was looking, the man stuffed a pug puppy, valued at $800, down the front of his pants, walked out of the store, and stowed it in their getaway car. Perhaps feeling emboldened by his success, the man reentered the store and managed to stuff a miniature dachshund down his pants and walk away again.

     The man and his accomplices were all set to go for the trifecta when the owner of the establishment unwittingly scared off the puppy snatchers. At the time of the theft, the owner was unaware of what had been happening. Only later did he discover the missing puppies. Currently the police have received some tips, but no one has been arrested yet.


Other news in brief:

'It's (breast) time, I'll take everything off,' in Fort Pierce! - I think she may have had a little bit too much liquid courage.

Newlywed accused of choking wife in bathtub, report says - Ah, young love.

Woman yanked out, kept victim's hair, police say - Sometimes you need to have something to mark your accomplishments.

Only in Forida 8/20/2013

     The phrase things, "got a little carried away"  is often used when normal expectations for a situation are exceeded. Your spouse gets a little carried away with the yard work and cuts down your favorite plant. Your kids get a little carried away with their finger paints and end up covering each other head to toe with a mix of colors that would make any tie-dye loving hippy proud. However, a Greenacres man made what can only be called the understatement of the year when, being interviewed by police about the murder of his roommate, told officers that, “things just got a little carried away today”.

     Scott Tobiassen was described by his victim, Gerard Longo, as a violent man who bragged about just how “bad” he was. Unfortunately for Longo, he found out just how violent Tobiassen could be when they got into a fight just after Tobiassen lost his job for not passing a drug test. During the fight, Tobiassen struck Longo with a black metal pipe and stabbed him with a knife.

     Dragging Longo's body to the shower, Tobiassen called longtime friend Alexandra Peirce and invited her over. Showing her the body, Peirce first thought they were playing a practical joke on her. The reality of the situation set in quick as, according to Peirce, Tobiassen asked her, “Can you believe I did this? He deserved it".

     Tobiassen then tried to blackmail Peirce into keeping quiet, telling her, “What I did was murder and now that you know about it you are an accomplice”. Peirce, however, did call the police and led them to the apartment. Upon their arrival, police found what they described as a "gruesome discovery".

     Tobiassen had told Peirce that he was going to hide Longo's body, but what he didn't tell her was how he planned to do it. When officers arrived at the apartment, they found that Tobiassen had dismembered Longo's corpse, hiding Longo’s legs in trash bags. Tobiassen had also cut off Longo's arms, head, and hands, placed them in one tote bag, and placed the torso down to the kneecaps in another. Tobiassen was arrested and is being held without bail, charged with murder.

   
Other news in brief:

Mom leaves baby with man she just met on Facebook, then goes shopping at Boynton Beach Walmart, cops say - Shoot, if I knew it was as easy as finding some random person on Facebook to baby sit my daughter, I would have done it ages ago.  (roll eyes and shake head)

Mother-in-law hit, threatened son's wife because of no grandchildren - Don't you wish you had a mother in law like this?

Man armed with cardboard gun steals $14 in coins, Ocala police say - Well, he was inventive I guess.

Only in Florida 8/7/2013

     Unlocked vehicles are one of the favorite targets of thieves. Police receive reports everyday as people return to find their CD's, wallets, iPods, or purses missing. A Niceville woman must have thought that she was going to be one of these unfortunate people after her neighbor reported that he had found her purse in his yard.

     The unnamed woman had left her purse in her husband's unlocked truck the night before. Sometime before dawn, someone entered the vehicle, took out the woman's purse, and nothing else. For reasons known only to themselves, the non-thief scattered the contents of the woman's purse in the bushes of her next door neighbors, and flung the purse in their yard, taking nothing. While that might be considered a bit unusual, what happened next left both the woman and the police scratching their heads.

     When the police arrived that afternoon to pick up an affidavit, the woman produced a silver hand bag that had been left in her garage. So, not only had the purse scatterer not stolen anything, they actually left the woman with more than she started with.

     Police have no suspects in the incident, and the case of the purse-leaver will probably go unsolved. The second purse was taken in as evidence.


Other news in brief:

Man tells woman to hit him; she obliges - Well, he did ask for it.

Central Blotter: Victim has no information to help crack nut case - Yep, that's just what the police need spend their time doing. (sarcasm off)

Woman tells police she'll threaten husband of 71 years if she wants to - Not what it sounds like, and if any one can stay that long with one person, I can't help but think she may be right.

Only in Florida 7/25/2013

      The old phrase, "throw the baby out with the bath water" is obviously meant to be taken figuratively. No one would want to throw their child, right? While most people would see this as common sense, one parent apparently missed the memo.
   
     Ashley Taylor Wright, 23, of Pensacola, was enjoying a day of shopping at the Santa Rosa Mall with her husband and two children. While they were in Dillard's, Wright decided to try and get a bit more for her money and placed two pairs of jeans and a shirt, worth more than 260 dollars, in her baby's stroller.

     The pilfering parent made it all the way to her car before she was stopped by an Okaloosa County sheriff's deputy. As he approached, Wright yelled at her husband to leave, and the officer attempted to get her to exit the vehicle. In response, she grabbed her child's carrier, with the baby inside, and told the deputy, "You will have to shoot through the baby to get me.”

     With no other solution presenting itself, Wright decided that the only way out was to make a run for it. As she did, apparently seeking a distraction, she threw her 14 pound infant at the deputy. Fortunately the child was unharmed. Wright, however, was not so lucky. As she ran from the deputy, she stumbled and fell, which gave him the chance to catch up. In a last ditch effort to escape, Wright tried to fight with the deputy on the ground. However, she lost the battle and was taken into custody. After her capture, the deputy noticed that Wright had suffered a cut on her head which required treatment at a local hospital.

     After being released from the hospital, Wright was charged with petty theft, child abuse without great bodily harm, resisting an officer without violence, and placed on $7,000 bond.


Other news in brief:

Police: Shoplifter's fight over 99-cent chips gets him robbery charge - Mother knows best

Mom angry daughter didn’t want to be baptized with her - Mother: You will get dunked, and you will like it!

Police say barefoot UPS employee tried to hide stolen cellphones in boots - Maybe he wanted to be called the barefoot bandit?

Flagler woman accused of battering boyfriend - She may be small, but she is fierce.

Police: Man shoves woman out of moving minivan after argument over beer on his way to rehab - They tried to make him go to rehab, but he said, "no, no, no".

Only in Florida 7/12/2013

     They old saying is that fortune favors the bold. While that may be true in some cases, I don't think fortune is going to favor you when you try and steal a 9 foot 600 pound purple aluminum chicken statue from a man's roadside stand. At 6 A.M. on the morning of July 2, three young men backed up their truck to the chicken, latched  on to it, and started to pull it down the road.

     Since it is almost impossible to pull off something like this quietly, the owner heard the commotion as they drove of with his chicken behind them. He ran outside, only to see one of the young men riding the chicken as it was being dragged down the road. Fortunately for the statue's owner, the thieves didn't make it very far, as the young men unhooked and abandoned the statue after only dragging it a mile. Unfortunately, however, the statue did not escape unscathed. It did suffer some major damage, especially to the side of it that was dragged on the ground.

     It took the police only a day to track down the purloiners of the purple poultry. Darrin Luke Edwards, 19, was charged with grand theft and violation of probation. Tyler Lee Jones, 21, and James Joseph Smith, 18, were charged with grand theft. Hopefully these men will think twice about something like this after they serve their time in the coop.

Other news in brief:

Police: Woman lights boyfriend's clothing ablaze - If you have a fight with your significant other, make sure there are no matches near your clothes

Male flirt poses as woman on chat site to entice and rob men, police say - when dealing with others online remember, trust but verify.

Claws come out over wine-pouring - When try to have an intervention, make sure you have backup.