The "Only In Florida" Police Blotter - Living Proof That Hell Is Other People

[Terry]

Also did he threaten the dogs with his guns in order to coerce them into it?

Quite the opposite: during his court hearing, he argued before the judge that the dogs in question were not coerced, and they clearly wanted it.

[Seshmeister]

To be fair if a pit bull doesn't want fucked it does have the tools to stop it happening.

[Terry]

To be fair if a pit bull doesn't want fucked it does have the tools to stop it happening.

Yes, indeed, the old "because the dog didn't turn around and bite my cock off I took that as a clear sign that I should continue fucking it until I cum" defense.

[Seshmeister]

Saw the headline and thought wonder if it's in Florida...?

http://nypost.com/2017/02/16/woman-arrested-for-performing-oral-sex-in-courthouse/

Woman arrested for performing oral sex in courthouse

By Associated Press February 16, 2017




JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Authorities say they’ve arrested a 26-year-old woman accused of performing a sex act inside a Florida courthouse and then posting a video online.

Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office records show Brittney Lahcell Jones was arrested Wednesday.

The Florida Times-Union reports Jones and 35-year-old Jeremiah Isiah Robinson had been wanted on a charge of a lascivious act. The newspaper reported a video surfaced online in January showing a woman performing oral sex on a man in front of what appeared to be a courtroom.

The newspaper reported Jones was being arraigned on a drug charge at the time in the Duval County Courthouse. A message on her Twitter account said, “Found a way to get my charges dropped.”

Police say Robinson turned himself in. Records don’t show whether either has an attorney.

[Terry]

Well, at least she seems upbeat about her predicament, if her mugshot photo is anything to go by.

Maybe she can hook up with the Tampa dogfucker...

[Nickdfresh]

The RV Bandit who stole a million dollars, one wallet at a time
Jay Busbee,Yahoo Sports 22 hours ago

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Don’t steal.

But if you’re going to steal, don’t return to the same locations to commit your crimes. And if you’re going to return to the same locations, don’t keep souvenirs of your thefts. And if you’re going to keep souvenirs, for heaven’s sake don’t let yourself get caught on camera.

Because if you steal long enough, and you return to the same locations, and you keep souvenirs, and you get caught on camera … well, son, you’re pretty much screwed.

Ladies and gentlemen, we present the story of the RV Bandit. It’s a tale that spans decades, involving dozens of crime scenes at countless racetracks, hundreds of victims, one Hollywood star and one thorough ass-kicking. It’s a tale of a million-dollar heist, one wallet at a time. And naturally, it’s centered in Florida.

Five days before this year’s Daytona 500, the United States Secret Service presented the city of Daytona Beach with a check for $188,000. It marked one of the final chapters in a story that began more than a quarter-century ago in an infield in Daytona International Speedway. Or perhaps Atlanta Motor Speedway. Or maybe any of a dozen or so other racetracks across the country.

What’s known is this: Sometime in the late 1980s, a traveling salesman by the name of Steven Garry Sanders wandered into an empty RV or team hauler parked at a racetrack and pocketed a wallet. Then he did it again. And again. And again. Same routine, different track, month after month, year after year.

“Pick a raceway, he was there,” said Robert Fultz, a special agent with the U.S. Secret Service, “and he probably committed a burglary.”

Sanders is a tall, heavyset white guy, which means he was like hay in the haystack of a racetrack. Throngs of anonymous heavyset white guys roam the grounds of every track, some working security, some cleaning up, some helping the race teams, some hanging out and taking in the spectacle. And some taking much more than that.

Sanders’ routine was brilliant in its simplicity: First, visit a track during preliminaries or lower-level events, where security was lighter. Second, act like you belong; act like anywhere you are, that’s where you ought to be. Third, watch the crowd, and when race teams start moving toward the starting line for the beginning of the race, swoop in behind them and sneak into their RVs. Fourth, take advantage of systemic weaknesses for maximum profit.

RVs “are always unlocked, because you’ve got 25 or 30 guys going in and out all the time,” said Det. Scott Frantz of the Daytona Beach Police Department. “Firesuits don’t have pockets, so guys would leave their wallets, their Rolexes right there in the motorhome. [Sanders] would never grab anything like a laptop, nothing that he couldn’t fit into his pocket.”

Frantz began investigating Sanders as a patrolman on the Daytona Beach police department in the mid-1990s, working robbery detail at Daytona International Speedway. Sanders had been on the department’s radar for years; accurate police sketches already sat in the P.D.’s filing cabinets.

Track security everywhere from Daytona to Atlanta had suspicions – when you’ve got literally dozens of people every weekend reporting thefts, you know something’s up. But police could never catch Sanders, who threaded in and out of RVs and team haulers like a ghost, race after race, year after year.

Frantz began developing a profile of Sanders, hoping to figure out how exactly he was staying so far ahead of law enforcement. Up until 2000, Sanders used stolen credit cards to purchase merchandise like appliances and laptops. By 2000, the gift card economy was in full swing, and Sanders altered his approach, flipping plastic to plastic. And when it became clear he was crossing state lines, Frantz brought Fultz and the Secret Service on board.

“He would buy gift cards at a Wal-Mart near Daytona, then launder them at a Wal-Mart in Jacksonville,” Fultz said. “He would exchange them for smaller and smaller values. And the trail would always end somewhere in Georgia.”

Steven G. Sanders (Alachua County Sheriff's Department)

Frantz and Fultz also had a sense of what Sanders looked like, thanks to security cameras that caught his transactions. Cameras in Daytona Beach caught Sanders at stores including Publix, Dillard’s and Wal-Mart using stolen cards to purchase gift cards, bottled water and necessities like an 18-pack of beer. At one point, Sanders also somehow managed to spend $55 at a McDonald’s in Deltona, which is a feat in itself.

By 2012, Frantz and Fultz had made Sanders their mission, even if they didn’t know his name. They staked out the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona, held that year on Jan. 28-29. They knew Sanders would be working the crowd, and so they were there, eyes open, watching and waiting.

And then the burglary calls began coming.

“We were right there!” Frantz said. “It was happening as we were there at the track!”

Frantz and Fultz began interviewing victims. During one interview, one victim’s bank called with an incredible tip: someone was using the stolen credit card, right then, at the Wal-Mart in Ormond Beach, just seven miles up the road from the track.

Could this be it? Would the detective and the special agent finally nail the man who’d vexed them for years? They reached out to Wal-Mart’s loss prevention team and tried to get them to hold Sanders, but by the time they arrived, he was gone. They reviewed security tape and discovered an even more infuriating truth.

“While we were walking in one door, he was walking out another,” Frantz said. “He wasn’t hours or minutes ahead of us. He was feet away from us.”

“Bad-guy luck,” Fultz said.

You can imagine the fury and cursing that followed. To be so close, to be in the same store as their quarry …

The next major race in the area was the NHRA Gatornationals, held at Gainesville Raceway on March 8, about a hundred miles northwest of Daytona. Frantz and Fultz figured they’d start getting word of burglaries there soon enough. What they didn’t count on was a 90-second video that would prove critical.

As cars rocketed down the raceway, Sanders once again crept into drivers’ motorhomes. This time around, he stole six credit cards and $202 in cash from one. He pilfered a wallet with $700 in cash from another. He snagged $1,500 in cash from a third.

Then he entered a brown-and-beige-toned American Eagle RV, and that’s where everything turned hard south for Sanders. Wearing a navy blue ballcap and golf shirt, he poked around the front of the RV, then edged his way to the door, carrying a rag in his hand. He then took one more look around inside the RV, put on his sunglasses and walked down the stairs out of the RV, wiping down the door handle as he went.

We know all this because a gentleman named Christopher DePascale was right next door, using his phone to film Sanders’ every move.


But Sanders wasn’t done, and neither was DePascale. Sanders left the first motor home, owned by DePascale’s friend Matt Cooke, walked around the front of DePascale’s Monaco Knight motor home as DePascale filmed from inside. Then, as DePascale sat within, Sanders crept into DePascale’s RV.

“Yes?” DePascale said as Sanders came into view.

Without missing a beat, Sanders lifted a phone. “Found a cell phone,” he said, not explaining why he’d just happened to casually walk right into an RV not his own.

“Ain’t mine,” DePascale said, and Sanders laughed.

“Found it right out here,” Sanders said, and left the phone with DePascale.

“That was his move,” Fultz said. “He always had a prop he would carry with him, a tool or a phone, something he could use to make it look like he was just trying to return a lost item.”

This time, the move failed. As soon as Sanders left, Depascale located Cooke, and the two chased down Sanders. Cooke, at least 40 pounds smaller than Sanders, nonetheless wrapped him up like a scrappy cornerback looking to take down a bruising fullback. DePascale screamed for onlookers to call the police, and then came in for the takedown.

A crowd of several dozen quickly gathered around the three men. “What are you doing?” one shouted, seeing what appeared to be two young men going to work, hard, on an older gentleman.

DePascale reached into Sanders’ pocket and withdrew wallets and credit cards. “He’s been stealing from all of you!” DePascale shouted. That turned the crowd to his favor in a hurry.

“The fans found him and put a little street justice on him,” said Art Forcey, public information officer for Alachua County, Fla. “They got a hold of him and pretty well put a beat-down on him before contacting us.”

An NHRA official who was also an off-duty cop arrived and subdued Sanders until police could arrive. But the fans had administered racetrack justice with enough force that Sanders needed to go to Gainesville’s Shands Hospital; his booking shot shows his bruised face and the neck brace he needed to wear after his victims got through with him.

“That’s the price you pay when you’re going around committing crimes,” Daytona Beach Police Chief Mike Chitwood said at the time.

At the hospital, a police officer spoke to Sanders, who initially gave his name as “Mr. Parker.” The net closing in, Sanders began to twitch.

“Every question he was asked about his personal information, he would hesitate to give, and then, if he gave any information, he would let his voice trail off,” Officer Clare M. Noble wrote in Sanders’ arrest report. “He gave two false names and a false address which cost this writer approximately three hours of investigation time.”

But eventually, Sanders surrendered to the inevitable. Alachua County police seized his vehicle – seeing as how it was used in the commission of a crime – and evidence within led Alachua to bring in the Daytona Beach Police Department, the Hall County (Ga.) Sheriff’s Office, the Highlands County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Office and Charlotte, N.C. police. Each jurisdiction had an active investigation involving Sanders, and each jurisdiction pounced.

Fultz and Frantz interviewed Sanders in Gainesville, and found him less than cooperative. (Sanders didn’t believe Frantz was really a Secret Service agent, which earned Frantz plenty of grief from wise guys back at the office.) But when they listened to Sanders’ calls to his family in Macon, they discerned that he appeared to be using coded terminology, directing family members to conceal evidence. Fultz and Frantz followed the trail back to Sanders’ home, and what they found there stunned them.

“There were truckloads, and I do mean truckloads, of stolen merchandise,” Frantz said. “You know how when you buy a computer it’s out of date right after you buy it? There was a closet full of computers, still unopened in boxes, the receipts right there.” They seized Rolexes, cash, merchandise, and an estimated $130,000 – six figures – in gift cards.

And then they found the journal.

Since 1996, Sanders had kept a meticulous journal documenting his crimes. Each page included a listing of each event he’d visited – 24 Hours of Daytona, Gatornationals, and so on – as well as two columns labeled “C” and “M.” “C” stood for cash, “M” for merchandise like watches, money clips and so on, as well as the merchandise he’d purchase with stolen cards, like cameras, ties and computers. He also wrote the date and location of the theft on the credit cards he’d stolen.

“He was like any kind of serial criminal, tracking his crimes like that,” Frantz said. “And he kept trophies.” Sanders’ collection included – of all things – a credential once held by Patrick Dempsey, “McDreamy” of “Grey’s Anatomy” fame. Dempsey, an accomplished racer, drove in the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona over several years.

The journal allowed the detectives to get an estimated total of how much Sanders stole over the course of his “career”: more than $1 million.

In all, Sanders either documented or was suspected of committing crimes literally nationwide, with tracks in California, Nevada, Wisconsin, Virginia, New York, Alabama, and Georgia all suffering thefts similar to Sanders’ style. (In a savvy bit of police sleuthing, Frantz and Fultz matched up expense reports Sanders filed at his traveling-salesman day job – lunch on the road at a Subway, say – to tracks which reported thefts, establishing his proximity at the time of the crime.)

The very nature of Sanders’ crimes – small-scale theft, repeated ad infinitum for decades – could have led unwary prosecutors to underestimate the extent and severity of the operation. The crimes stretched for miles, but only a few inches deep. So Frantz and Fultz attended hearing after hearing – up to 40 in all – determined not to let Sanders slip the net once again.

“[Sanders’ defense] tried to portray this as the equivalent of a criminal tugging on car doors and grabbing change,” said Tammy Jaques, the Volusia County state’s attorney who prosecuted a successful case against Sanders. “This was much more sophisticated than that. This was invading the privacy of an area that was essentially home for these racers: They ate there, they slept there. You have a greater expectation of privacy in your dwelling than in your vehicle.”

Manatee County (Fla.), home of several of Sanders’ thefts, got the first conviction, sentencing him to five years. Last year, Jaques won a 10-year conviction, plus five years of probation – to be served once Sanders finishes his five-year Manatee sentence later this year. Sanders is currently 56 years old, and there are still several jurisdictions which could seek their own restitution.

The moral of the story? Crime can pay … but justice always comes to collect. Sometimes, with force.

From YAHOO

[Seshmeister]

I'm honestly starting to think that maybe Florida is the most fucked up place in the world.

This is about 5 times in a row now I've seen a headline and thought, 'hah if that happened in Florida I'll put it on the website' and every fucking time it has been.

http://www.floridasunpost.com/tampa-man-loses-testicles-trying-fill-scuba-tank-weed-smoke/

[FORD]

Hopefully he's going to stick to edibles for his pain management. Now that he has no balls

[FORD]

Oops... looks like this one is "Fake News"......

http://www.snopes.com/man-loses-testicles-while-trying-to-fill-scuba-tank-with-weed-smoke/

[Seshmeister]

Aha maybe what is happening is if I see that a story is in Florida I haven't been bothering to check snopes...

[Seshmeister]

https://www.local10.com/news/crime/margate-man-who-claimed-girlfriend-accidentally-choked-during-oral-sex-found-not-guilty-of-murder

Man who claimed girlfriend accidentally choked during oral sex found not guilty of murder
Richard Patterson acquitted by jury hours after hearing closing arguments

By Peter Burke - Local10.com Managing Editor , Michael Seiden - Reporter



FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - A South Florida man who was on trial in the 2015 choking death of his girlfriend has been found not guilty of murder.

Richard Patterson, 65, of Margate, was acquitted Monday of second-degree murder. His attorney, Ken Padowitz, argued during trial that his client accidentally choked Francisca Marquinez, 60, during oral sex.

The jury heard closing arguments in the morning and deliberated for a few hours in the afternoon before returning the verdict.

Patterson did not testify. Instead, the defense called on Dr. Ronald Wright, a former Broward County medical examiner, who said it was possible that Marquinez could have choked during oral sex.

Padowitz told jurors that the medical examiner's autopsy report said the manner of death was undetermined.


Assistant state attorney Peter Sapak questioned why Patterson didn't call 911 right away and reminded jurors of testimony from an ex-girlfriend, who said he told her that he choked Marquinez. He also re-read a text message that Patterson's daughter said she sent him to him the day after Marquinez was killed.

Defense attorney Ken Padowitz makes his closing arguments to the jury in the second-degree murder trial of Richard Patterson.
Before the trial began, Padowitz filed a motion asking that the jury be allowed to see Patterson's penis, but the defense rested before Broward County Judge Lisa Porter made a decision.

Patterson hugged Padowitz after the verdict was announced.

"This was a terrible tragedy that happened to this lady who my client was very much in love with," Padowitz told Local 10 News outside the courtroom.

[Sarge]

The RV Bandit who stole a million dollars, one wallet at a time
Jay Busbee,Yahoo Sports 22 hours ago

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Don’t steal.

But if you’re going to steal, don’t return to the same locations to commit your crimes. And if you’re going to return to the same locations, don’t keep souvenirs of your thefts. And if you’re going to keep souvenirs, for heaven’s sake don’t let yourself get caught on camera.

Because if you steal long enough, and you return to the same locations, and you keep souvenirs, and you get caught on camera … well, son, you’re pretty much screwed.

Ladies and gentlemen, we present the story of the RV Bandit. It’s a tale that spans decades, involving dozens of crime scenes at countless racetracks, hundreds of victims, one Hollywood star and one thorough ass-kicking. It’s a tale of a million-dollar heist, one wallet at a time. And naturally, it’s centered in Florida.

Five days before this year’s Daytona 500, the United States Secret Service presented the city of Daytona Beach with a check for $188,000. It marked one of the final chapters in a story that began more than a quarter-century ago in an infield in Daytona International Speedway. Or perhaps Atlanta Motor Speedway. Or maybe any of a dozen or so other racetracks across the country.

What’s known is this: Sometime in the late 1980s, a traveling salesman by the name of Steven Garry Sanders wandered into an empty RV or team hauler parked at a racetrack and pocketed a wallet. Then he did it again. And again. And again. Same routine, different track, month after month, year after year.

“Pick a raceway, he was there,” said Robert Fultz, a special agent with the U.S. Secret Service, “and he probably committed a burglary.”

Sanders is a tall, heavyset white guy, which means he was like hay in the haystack of a racetrack. Throngs of anonymous heavyset white guys roam the grounds of every track, some working security, some cleaning up, some helping the race teams, some hanging out and taking in the spectacle. And some taking much more than that.

Sanders’ routine was brilliant in its simplicity: First, visit a track during preliminaries or lower-level events, where security was lighter. Second, act like you belong; act like anywhere you are, that’s where you ought to be. Third, watch the crowd, and when race teams start moving toward the starting line for the beginning of the race, swoop in behind them and sneak into their RVs. Fourth, take advantage of systemic weaknesses for maximum profit.

RVs “are always unlocked, because you’ve got 25 or 30 guys going in and out all the time,” said Det. Scott Frantz of the Daytona Beach Police Department. “Firesuits don’t have pockets, so guys would leave their wallets, their Rolexes right there in the motorhome. [Sanders] would never grab anything like a laptop, nothing that he couldn’t fit into his pocket.”

Frantz began investigating Sanders as a patrolman on the Daytona Beach police department in the mid-1990s, working robbery detail at Daytona International Speedway. Sanders had been on the department’s radar for years; accurate police sketches already sat in the P.D.’s filing cabinets.

Track security everywhere from Daytona to Atlanta had suspicions – when you’ve got literally dozens of people every weekend reporting thefts, you know something’s up. But police could never catch Sanders, who threaded in and out of RVs and team haulers like a ghost, race after race, year after year.

Frantz began developing a profile of Sanders, hoping to figure out how exactly he was staying so far ahead of law enforcement. Up until 2000, Sanders used stolen credit cards to purchase merchandise like appliances and laptops. By 2000, the gift card economy was in full swing, and Sanders altered his approach, flipping plastic to plastic. And when it became clear he was crossing state lines, Frantz brought Fultz and the Secret Service on board.

“He would buy gift cards at a Wal-Mart near Daytona, then launder them at a Wal-Mart in Jacksonville,” Fultz said. “He would exchange them for smaller and smaller values. And the trail would always end somewhere in Georgia.”

Steven G. Sanders (Alachua County Sheriff's Department)

Frantz and Fultz also had a sense of what Sanders looked like, thanks to security cameras that caught his transactions. Cameras in Daytona Beach caught Sanders at stores including Publix, Dillard’s and Wal-Mart using stolen cards to purchase gift cards, bottled water and necessities like an 18-pack of beer. At one point, Sanders also somehow managed to spend $55 at a McDonald’s in Deltona, which is a feat in itself.

By 2012, Frantz and Fultz had made Sanders their mission, even if they didn’t know his name. They staked out the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona, held that year on Jan. 28-29. They knew Sanders would be working the crowd, and so they were there, eyes open, watching and waiting.

And then the burglary calls began coming.

“We were right there!” Frantz said. “It was happening as we were there at the track!”

Frantz and Fultz began interviewing victims. During one interview, one victim’s bank called with an incredible tip: someone was using the stolen credit card, right then, at the Wal-Mart in Ormond Beach, just seven miles up the road from the track.

Could this be it? Would the detective and the special agent finally nail the man who’d vexed them for years? They reached out to Wal-Mart’s loss prevention team and tried to get them to hold Sanders, but by the time they arrived, he was gone. They reviewed security tape and discovered an even more infuriating truth.

“While we were walking in one door, he was walking out another,” Frantz said. “He wasn’t hours or minutes ahead of us. He was feet away from us.”

“Bad-guy luck,” Fultz said.

You can imagine the fury and cursing that followed. To be so close, to be in the same store as their quarry …

The next major race in the area was the NHRA Gatornationals, held at Gainesville Raceway on March 8, about a hundred miles northwest of Daytona. Frantz and Fultz figured they’d start getting word of burglaries there soon enough. What they didn’t count on was a 90-second video that would prove critical.

As cars rocketed down the raceway, Sanders once again crept into drivers’ motorhomes. This time around, he stole six credit cards and $202 in cash from one. He pilfered a wallet with $700 in cash from another. He snagged $1,500 in cash from a third.

Then he entered a brown-and-beige-toned American Eagle RV, and that’s where everything turned hard south for Sanders. Wearing a navy blue ballcap and golf shirt, he poked around the front of the RV, then edged his way to the door, carrying a rag in his hand. He then took one more look around inside the RV, put on his sunglasses and walked down the stairs out of the RV, wiping down the door handle as he went.

We know all this because a gentleman named Christopher DePascale was right next door, using his phone to film Sanders’ every move.


But Sanders wasn’t done, and neither was DePascale. Sanders left the first motor home, owned by DePascale’s friend Matt Cooke, walked around the front of DePascale’s Monaco Knight motor home as DePascale filmed from inside. Then, as DePascale sat within, Sanders crept into DePascale’s RV.

“Yes?” DePascale said as Sanders came into view.

Without missing a beat, Sanders lifted a phone. “Found a cell phone,” he said, not explaining why he’d just happened to casually walk right into an RV not his own.

“Ain’t mine,” DePascale said, and Sanders laughed.

“Found it right out here,” Sanders said, and left the phone with DePascale.

“That was his move,” Fultz said. “He always had a prop he would carry with him, a tool or a phone, something he could use to make it look like he was just trying to return a lost item.”

This time, the move failed. As soon as Sanders left, Depascale located Cooke, and the two chased down Sanders. Cooke, at least 40 pounds smaller than Sanders, nonetheless wrapped him up like a scrappy cornerback looking to take down a bruising fullback. DePascale screamed for onlookers to call the police, and then came in for the takedown.

A crowd of several dozen quickly gathered around the three men. “What are you doing?” one shouted, seeing what appeared to be two young men going to work, hard, on an older gentleman.

DePascale reached into Sanders’ pocket and withdrew wallets and credit cards. “He’s been stealing from all of you!” DePascale shouted. That turned the crowd to his favor in a hurry.

“The fans found him and put a little street justice on him,” said Art Forcey, public information officer for Alachua County, Fla. “They got a hold of him and pretty well put a beat-down on him before contacting us.”

An NHRA official who was also an off-duty cop arrived and subdued Sanders until police could arrive. But the fans had administered racetrack justice with enough force that Sanders needed to go to Gainesville’s Shands Hospital; his booking shot shows his bruised face and the neck brace he needed to wear after his victims got through with him.

“That’s the price you pay when you’re going around committing crimes,” Daytona Beach Police Chief Mike Chitwood said at the time.

At the hospital, a police officer spoke to Sanders, who initially gave his name as “Mr. Parker.” The net closing in, Sanders began to twitch.

“Every question he was asked about his personal information, he would hesitate to give, and then, if he gave any information, he would let his voice trail off,” Officer Clare M. Noble wrote in Sanders’ arrest report. “He gave two false names and a false address which cost this writer approximately three hours of investigation time.”

But eventually, Sanders surrendered to the inevitable. Alachua County police seized his vehicle – seeing as how it was used in the commission of a crime – and evidence within led Alachua to bring in the Daytona Beach Police Department, the Hall County (Ga.) Sheriff’s Office, the Highlands County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Office and Charlotte, N.C. police. Each jurisdiction had an active investigation involving Sanders, and each jurisdiction pounced.

Fultz and Frantz interviewed Sanders in Gainesville, and found him less than cooperative. (Sanders didn’t believe Frantz was really a Secret Service agent, which earned Frantz plenty of grief from wise guys back at the office.) But when they listened to Sanders’ calls to his family in Macon, they discerned that he appeared to be using coded terminology, directing family members to conceal evidence. Fultz and Frantz followed the trail back to Sanders’ home, and what they found there stunned them.

“There were truckloads, and I do mean truckloads, of stolen merchandise,” Frantz said. “You know how when you buy a computer it’s out of date right after you buy it? There was a closet full of computers, still unopened in boxes, the receipts right there.” They seized Rolexes, cash, merchandise, and an estimated $130,000 – six figures – in gift cards.

And then they found the journal.

Since 1996, Sanders had kept a meticulous journal documenting his crimes. Each page included a listing of each event he’d visited – 24 Hours of Daytona, Gatornationals, and so on – as well as two columns labeled “C” and “M.” “C” stood for cash, “M” for merchandise like watches, money clips and so on, as well as the merchandise he’d purchase with stolen cards, like cameras, ties and computers. He also wrote the date and location of the theft on the credit cards he’d stolen.

“He was like any kind of serial criminal, tracking his crimes like that,” Frantz said. “And he kept trophies.” Sanders’ collection included – of all things – a credential once held by Patrick Dempsey, “McDreamy” of “Grey’s Anatomy” fame. Dempsey, an accomplished racer, drove in the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona over several years.

The journal allowed the detectives to get an estimated total of how much Sanders stole over the course of his “career”: more than $1 million.

In all, Sanders either documented or was suspected of committing crimes literally nationwide, with tracks in California, Nevada, Wisconsin, Virginia, New York, Alabama, and Georgia all suffering thefts similar to Sanders’ style. (In a savvy bit of police sleuthing, Frantz and Fultz matched up expense reports Sanders filed at his traveling-salesman day job – lunch on the road at a Subway, say – to tracks which reported thefts, establishing his proximity at the time of the crime.)

The very nature of Sanders’ crimes – small-scale theft, repeated ad infinitum for decades – could have led unwary prosecutors to underestimate the extent and severity of the operation. The crimes stretched for miles, but only a few inches deep. So Frantz and Fultz attended hearing after hearing – up to 40 in all – determined not to let Sanders slip the net once again.

“[Sanders’ defense] tried to portray this as the equivalent of a criminal tugging on car doors and grabbing change,” said Tammy Jaques, the Volusia County state’s attorney who prosecuted a successful case against Sanders. “This was much more sophisticated than that. This was invading the privacy of an area that was essentially home for these racers: They ate there, they slept there. You have a greater expectation of privacy in your dwelling than in your vehicle.”

Manatee County (Fla.), home of several of Sanders’ thefts, got the first conviction, sentencing him to five years. Last year, Jaques won a 10-year conviction, plus five years of probation – to be served once Sanders finishes his five-year Manatee sentence later this year. Sanders is currently 56 years old, and there are still several jurisdictions which could seek their own restitution.

The moral of the story? Crime can pay … but justice always comes to collect. Sometimes, with force.

From YAHOO

How did the guy spend $55.00 at McDonalds?

[Seshmeister]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5454845/Teacher-sex-student-14-released-bond.html

Married school teacher, 26, filed for divorce two weeks before she was arrested for 'having sex with a 14-year-old student'


A former Florida middle school teacher accused of having sex with a 14-year-old student as well as supplying him marijuana was released from jail on Thursday night after having her bond reduced - as it emerged that she is divorcing her husband.

Stephanie Peterson Ferri, 26, was led into a Daytona Beach courtroom dressed in an orange jail garb and with handcuffs restraining her wrists for her initial court appearance.

Ferri appeared somber and pale during the brief hearing, and at times used her long black hair to shield her bare face from the news cameras in the courtroom.



Her defense lawyer asked the judge to release his client from jail on her own recognizance, arguing that she posed no threat to the public, had no prior criminal history and was not a flight risk, reported WKMG.

The prosecution asked the judge to keep the bond amount unchanged, given the 'egregious' nature of the crime and the victim's young age, according to Ocala.com.

But County Judge Bryan Feigenbaum agreed to lower the bond amount form $25,000 to $12,500.

He also barred Ferri from having contact with the victim and his parents, or anyone under the age of 18 who is not related to her.

Under the conditions of her release, the 26-year-old who stands accused, among other things, of sending nude photos of herself to her former student, is prohibited from using the Internet to post selfies online, and must take unspecified medications that have been prescribed to her.



Ferri posted the bond amount a short time after Thursday’s court appearance and walked out of Volusia County Jail about 5pm.

It then emerged that about two weeks before she was arrested for allegedly having sex with her underage student, Ferri filed paperwork seeking to divorce her husband of two years, DeLand firefighter Brandon Ferri.

The teacher was arrested in Wednesday morning in New Smyrna, Florida after the alleged victim confided in his parents about his suspected relationship with the New Smyrna Beach Middle School science teacher.

The eighth-grader told them that Ferri picked him up occasionally from their home at 11pm and often spent hours with him at her home while her firefighters husband was at work.

He also said that she sent him nude photographs of herself and that she had bought him marijuana and a 'bowl to smoke it'.

The boy is said to have told his parents that the relationship made his grades suffer.

Ferri was booked into the county jail on charges of lewd or lascivious battery and transmitting harmful materials to a child.

Volusia County Sheriff's Office announced the arrest on Facebook.

Its investigators alleged that the relationship between Ferri and the boy began in November 2017.




She resigned from her job at the New Smyrna school on Monday.

According to the boy, Peterson told him he could not tell anyone about their relationship when she they were together alone.

Peterson and her soon-to-be ex-husband Brandon Ferri had been married since 2015 and do not have any children.

They both deleted their social media profiles as news of her arrest emerged.

[Terry]

Man, that kid must have been half a fag to have to run and tell Mommy and Daddy about tapping that...PLUS she got him weed on top of it?! Although I think the parents caught onto it, rather than the kid just offering up the info, but still.

[Seshmeister]

https://news.sky.com/story/homeless-man-with-no-arms-charged-with-stabbing-tourist-in-florida-11434490

Homeless man with no arms charged with stabbing tourist in Florida



By Lucia Binding, news reporter

A homeless beach artist with no arms has been charged with stabbing a tourist in Florida.

Jonathan Crenshaw, who paints pictures with his feet and weighs around 90lbs, was arrested in Miami Beach for allegedly stabbing a tourist from Chicago with a pair of scissors.


The Florida native clutched the scissors with his feet and knifed 22-year-old Cesar Coronado twice before running away, according to the arrest report.

Crenshaw, 46, told police he was lying down when the tourist approached him and punched him in the head.

Mr Coronado told investigators he had stopped to ask Crenshaw for directions before he jumped up and stabbed him.

After the attack, Crenshaw is alleged to have put the scissors back into his waistband and quickly left the area.

Police found Mr Coronado bleeding from his left arm and he was taken to hospital for treatment, the Miami Herald reported.

It noted that Crenshaw is a popular fixture in the area and is known for painting canvases along a trendy spot in the neighbourhood of South Beach in the city of Miami Beach.

Cindy Barrientos, who was travelling with Mr Coronado, described the attacker as a homeless man with no arms to officers.

He was found a short distance away and arrested after midnight on Tuesday.

Crenshaw, who has been charged with aggravated battery, has a court date on 18 July.