10.
SCOTT TAYLOR
One of the strangest encounters that police in Titusville experienced last year involved
a sword-wielding man who emerged from behind four-foot-high (1.2 meters) flames in the
middle of the road.
Officers spotted the fire during their routine patrol.
When they stopped to see what was going on, the man appeared.
In addition to brandishing a weapon, he was drinking alcohol at the scene and had a knife
in his waistband.
The blaze was occurring in front of the house of a man named Scott Taylor, who the authorities
had gotten to know pretty well through frequent visits stemming from criminal complaints.
In fact, they had been to Taylor’s residence five times over the previous six months for
the same exact reason.
As it turned out, the man had a thing for starting illegal fires on the sidewalk and
the road, and it had become an ongoing problem.
Taylor was sitting in his front yard when officers approached.
He was chugging from the half-gallon bottle of rum in his hand, but he cooperated when
the cops told him to drop his weapons.
When asked why he started this most recent fire, Taylor had no answer.
Police took him into custody and charged him with intentional or reckless burning and felony
criminal mischief.
The suspect continued to misbehave from behind bars by breaking an overhead sprinkler and
intentionally flooding his cell.
9.
TREY CORNWELL
Last May, 29-year-old Trey Cornwell became the latest “Florida man” to make news
headlines for a crazy arrest.
It was arguably the large lightning bolt tattoo covering half his face that drew widespread
attention, rather than the actual crime he was accused of.
But that was also a strange story in its own right.
The eccentrically inked man was accused of stealing an ambulance from a hospital in Hernando
County while its crew was inside the emergency room dropping a patient off.
He drove the emergency vehicle to the Miramar Beach area in Walton County and got it stuck
in the mud and sand near the water.
Cornwell left the ambulance at the scene and was later taken into custody.
He was charged with grand theft auto and held on $10,000 bail.
It wasn’t his first rodeo with the law – a decade earlier, when he was 19, Trey had gotten
into some trouble for allegedly stealing his stepfather’s wallet.
He was reportedly caught in the act but sped off in his vehicle as his family members tried
to stop him.
The ordeal ended with Trey taking a sudden sharp right turn, causing a pursuing relative
to be ejected from the truck bed.
8.
WILLIAM HODGE
Police officers in Daytona Beach Shores looked on in shock last year as a 32-year-old man
named William Hodge tried to throw an alligator onto the roof of a building at around 3:30
in the morning.
When the suspect failed to achieve his original goal, he grabbed the reptile by its tail and
slammed it against the building’s awning.
Then, he threw the creature to the ground and stomped on it before throwing it over
his shoulder and against the ground one more time, according to the arrest affidavit.
Hodge reportedly told officers that he jumped a fence and trespassed into a nearby miniature
golf course, where he stole the gator.
When the police asked Hodge why he committed the bizarre act, he reportedly said that he
was teaching the gator a lesson.
He was taken into custody and charged with animal abuse, possession and injury of an
alligator, and unarmed burglary of an unoccupied dwelling.
And the trouble didn’t end there.
After he was apprehended, the suspect tried to flood his holding cell by clogging the
toilet and drains with toilet paper.
The good news is that the alligator received a clean bill of health and was returned to
its home at the miniature golf course.
7.
ANTOINE MCDONALD
Even the Easter Bunny got involved when a fight broke out one night outside an Orlando
bar in 2019.
Well, it was a man dressed as the Easter Bunny.
His name is Antoine McDonald, and he jumped into the fray when he saw a woman getting
punched, which made him feel like he had no choice but to come to her defense.
Another witness said that they saw a man spitting on the woman before McDonald got involved.
The costume-clad hero immediately began throwing punches in an attempt to break up the fight.
Josh Manes, who manages the bar that the brawl broke out in front of, told NBC News that
he was at a loss for words at what he saw after he heard a commotion and rushed outside.
But he also admitted that he couldn’t be too surprised, because “that’s how Sundays,
fun days go around here in Orlando.”
A police officer saw the scuffle and quickly broke it up.
Viral footage showed McDonald throwing punches into the air even after the fight ended because
he was still hyped up over the ordeal.
At first, the cops thought the encounter was staged.
They even threatened to arrest McDonald if they saw him engaging in any similar interactions
in the future.
But the good Samaritan managed to clear up the confusion when he explained that he was
just a bystander with good intentions, who sprang into action when he saw a woman in
peril.
6.
MELODY CARR
When employees at the Country Inn & Suites in Ocala noticed a rowdy bikini-clad woman
at the hotel’s pool last year, none of them remembered checking her in.
The manager approached the unidentified guest and asked which room she was staying in.
She reportedly became angry and walked away, refusing to disclose her room number – because
she didn’t have one.
The disruptive individual was 42-year-old Melody Carr, and according to staff members,
she was causing a disturbance because the pool is for guests only.
So the manager called the police and asked them to cite her for trespassing.
An officer tracked her down at another nearby hotel, where she was walking her dog.
Carr allegedly told the cop that she didn’t do anything wrong and to leave her alone.
She also accused the manager who called the police of being jealous of her because, in
her words, her body “looked good.”
The woman gave a slew of strange excuses for her unauthorized presence at the hotel, including
a story about how her boyfriend was staying there but had stormed off in a rage.
She also said that she planned to keep her car in the parking lot until she could get
it repaired, but peeled away under the business’s threat to have it towed.
The responding officer smelled alcohol on Carr’s breath and charged her with disorderly
intoxication.
Do you think Carr’s punishment was too harsh?
Let us know in the comments below and don’t forget to subscribe!
:)
5.
DR.
LOVE
When he was just 18 years old, Malachi Love-Robinson managed to convince the public that he was
a medical doctor.
He claimed to hold multiple degrees, including a Ph.D and an MD, and his patients believed
him.
But the ruse didn’t last very long.
The so-called “Dr. Love” was caught stealing from his patients in 2015 and was charged
with grand larceny.
He argued that he never pretended to be a doctor and described himself as a “naturopathic
physician,” but the court didn’t buy the explanation and the young man was sent to
prison for 21 months.
Sadly, Love-Robinson’s first stint behind bars didn’t teach him to stay out of trouble.
He made headlines yet again last year, at the age of 23, for allegedly stealing over
$10,000 from a shipping broker he worked for.
Authorities accused the man of having clients send money to his personal bank account, rather
than the company’s account.
Once again, Love-Robinson found himself facing a grand theft charge, as well as fraud.
4.
TIMOTHY MUNFORD
When 25-year-old Timothy Munford broadcasted himself renting a jetski on Facebook live
two years ago, he clearly wasn’t thinking about the fact that he was wanted for violating
his probation.
The carefree felon streamed a video of himself driving to Southside Jet Ski in Daytona Beach,
making his whereabouts loud and clear to anyone who was watching.
Unfortunately for Munford, law enforcement happened to be among his audience.
In fact, he was still recording when police arrived at the scene and took him into custody.
The entire arrest was broadcasted on the wanted man’s Facebook page.
A spokesperson from the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office noted that they considered Munford
to possibly be armed and dangerous.
A search of his vehicle turned up the handgun that he was rumored to carry, as well as a
sizable stash of bullets.
Investigators also found a bag of what appeared to be the deadly drug fentanyl, some marijuana,
and some cash.
Munford’s fun day in the sun ended behind bars.
He was hit with a slew of charges, including being a convicted felon in possession of a
weapon and/or ammo, fentanyl trafficking, and possession of narcotics paraphernalia.
3.
DOMINIC TADDEO
After serving decades of federal time for murdering three people and attempting to kill
others, a New York mob hitman named Dominic Taddeo took the first opportunity he could
to escape from custody.
The 64-year-old was moved to a halfway house in February and barely spent a month there
before he slipped out of sight during an authorized doctor’s appointment that he had obtained
permission to leave the premises for.
Taddeo’s charges date back more than 30 years.
In 1992, he pleaded guilty to racketeering charges in relation to hits he had carried
out during the ‘80s.
Even though he’s from Rocheter, New York, he served out his time at a medium security
facility northwest of Orlando in Coleman, Florida.
Last year, the aging inmate requested an early release from a judge in Western New York based
on his ailing health.
He suffers from numerous conditions, including hypertension and obesity, but the judge had
no mercy and denied Taddeo’s request after prosecutors argued that the man’s medical
records did not suggest that he was particularly unhealthy.
Taddeo’s life on the lam didn’t last very long.
Just days after escaping, he was captured at an apartment in Hialeah.
Federal agents didn’t explain how they tracked him down, but commended the U.S. Marshals
involved in the search for their quick-thinking and tenacious work.
It wasn’t the first time Taddeo managed to vanish from right underneath the watchful
eyes of the authorities.
Back in 1987, he went on the run after being released on $25,000 bail.
He was gone for two years before law enforcement finally caught up to him and brought him to
justice for the allegations he had tried to avoid facing.
2.
WOMAN DRIVES ON AIRPORT RUNWAY
A 42-year-old woman recently held up flights at Southwest Florida International Airport
near Fort Myers when she decided to crash her car through the gates and drive onto the
runway.
Operations were disrupted for roughly a half-hour as she steered the vehicle through a restricted
entry, across the tarmac, and toward a Spirit Airlines airplane.
Authorities were quick to respond – it is an airport, after all – and were met with
extremely erratic behavior from the woman, who reportedly screamed obscenities at officers
and threatened to “blow their brains out.”
She refused to explain why she had rammed through a gate and driven onto the airfield.
Thankfully, nobody was hurt during the bizarre fiasco, there was no damage to the runways,
and there were no significant delays.
Police charged the suspect with reckless driving, criminal mischief, violating a designated
operational area of an airport, and threatening a public servant.
She was released after posting a $205,500 bond and is free while the case works its
way through court.
1.
DAVID HINES
Sadly, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, many people misused the generous financial assistance
that the federal government provided to prevent widespread economic disaster.
In order to get the money to those who needed it urgently, it was much easier than usual
for people to obtain funding that they may not have necessarily needed.
Businessman David Hines took advantage of this easy access shortly after the pandemic
began by submitting as much as $13.5 million in fraudulent loan applications to the Paycheck
Protection Program, which was meant to provide relief to struggling companies.
He claimed on the applications that he planned to use the money to issue payroll payments
to his employees.
The 29-year-old was ultimately approved for nearly $4 million in assistance, and he allegedly
used the money not to keep his workers afloat, but for a high-end sports car and other frivolous
personal expenses.
Within days of receiving the payout, Hines reportedly spent around $318,000 on a 2020
Lamborghini Huracan.
He is also accused of blowing money at upscale retailers and resorts in the Miami area.
Thankfully, the alleged scammer’s fun was short-lived.
Authorities seized the Lamborghini and slapped Hines with several charges, including one
count of bank fraud, one count of making false statements to a financial institution, and
one count of engaging in transactions in unlawful proceeds.
And the law did not go easy on the disgraced business owner, who pleaded guilty to one
count of wire fraud earlier this year.
Hines was sentenced to more than six years behind bars for his gross misuse of government
funds.
Thanks for watching!
Would you rather end up at the center of the next viral “Florida man” news headline
or come face-to-face with an angry Florida gator?
Let us know in the comments below and don’t forget to subscribe!
See you next time, bye! :)