Florida woman arrested in topless rampage at McDonald's

MIAMI (Reuters) - A bare-breasted woman wearing only bikini bottoms was observed by security cameras vandalizing a Florida McDonald's.

In the video, which went viral on Tuesday, the woman is seen shoving cash registers onto the floor, overturning a drinks dispenser and throwing items at staff before helping herself to some ice cream.

Sandra Suarez, 41, entered the McDonald's in Pinellas Park on Florida's west coast on March 24, and when an employee asked her to put on some clothes, she refused and became destructive, according to a police report obtained by the Tampa Bay Times.

"She destroys it," Pinellas Park police spokesman Sgt. Adam Geissenberger, told the newspaper. "You name it, she's turning it over."

The police report said she caused about $10,000 in damage.

Suarez was taken to a local hospital and was charged with felony criminal mischief and resisting arrest.

(Reporting by David Adams and Kevin Gray; editing by Gunna Dickson)

Crime & JusticeSociety & CultureFlorida

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Black bear returns 3 times to Florida location

SHALIMAR, Fla. (AP) — Officials are hoping the third time is a charm for a 350-pound black bear found sleeping in a Florida Panhandle tree.

The bear has been caught and tagged and removed from the area twice since April. But he keeps finding his way back to the Panama City area.

On Monday, he was spotted in a pine tree outside the Shalimar Yacht Basin.

He was first spotted April 14 near a Panama City elementary school. The Northwest Florida Daily News (http://bit.ly/1pSEloG) reports wildlife officials relocated him 90 miles away to Mud Swamp in Apalachicola National Forest. It took him three weeks but he made it back to the neighborhood.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission worked with Eglin Air Force Base to remove him but he returned on Monday.

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Information from: Northwest Florida Daily News (Fort Walton Beach, Fla.), http://www.nwfdailynews.com

EnvironmentNature & Environment

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Wrong Miss Florida crowned in voting mix-up

By Letitia Stein

TAMPA Fla. (Reuters) - Just a week after her coronation, the winner of the 2014 Miss Florida pageant was dethroned on Friday when organizers said they had crowned the wrong woman after a vote-count error.

Elizabeth Fechtel, a 20-year-old student at the University of Florida, won this year's pageant in front of nearly 2,000 spectators last Saturday in St. Petersburg, Florida.

But the ballot counter didn't see that one of the five judges had changed his mind, writing a new line up on the left-hand side of his ballot.

The true Miss Florida contest winner was Victoria Cowen, a 21-year-old student at Florida State University.

Meanwhile, in Delaware, beauty contest winner Amanda Longacre was stripped of her crown as Miss Delaware this week because she will turn 25 in October and pageant rules say contestants must be no older than 24 in 2014. [ID:nL2N0P81FS]

After the Florida mix-up came to light this week, pageant organizers sought an independent review, said Mary Sullivan, executive director of the Miss Florida pageant.

Sullivan delivered the bad news to Fechtel in person on Thursday evening, traveling to her home in Leesburg, Florida.

"Our organization had to do the right thing, and the right thing is to crown the young woman that was intended to be crowned," Sullivan said.

Sullivan was not aware of another vote count error of this nature, although pageant winners have been disqualified for other reasons, she said.

Fechtel is now the runner-up, and Cowen will compete in September's Miss America contest. The two women are friends, Sullivan said, which made the conversations even harder.

"We would have been very proud either way because they are so exceptional," Sullivan said. "Once we were made aware of it, we couldn't stand by and just not do anything."

The Florida pageant involved in the mix-up is part of the "Miss America" series, distinct from a separate Florida contest for the "Miss USA" title.

Neither woman could immediately be reached on Friday.

(Reporting by Letitia Stein; Editing by Barbara Goldberg)

Hobbies & Personal ActivitiesUniversity of FloridaFlorida State University

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Buying a Home in South West Florida For 0% Down and No Closing Costs

Buying a Home in South West Florida For 0% Down and No Closing Costs

If you’ve read this far and clicked on this article, you’re probably thinking one of two things.

1.) How can I take advantage of this program?

2.) What kind of scam is this guy spinning here?

Hopefully you were thinking both! It’s good to be cautious, especially in this day and age. There are plenty of scams out there. There are plenty of people trying to take advantage of people in these low economic times. After hearing about this program though, you’ll be able to do your own research, ask around, and discover that yes, this is actually a real, government backed program.

What is it? It’s called a USDA loan. That’s right, USDA. I know what you’re thinking: “What, are you trying to do, get me to buy a cow?” It is the same USDA you are used to hearing about. The United States Department of Agriculture. Yes, they have their seal stamped in the front of packages of good beef. But they also offer home loans. Needless to say, the USDA is a government agency, one committed to helping rural and agricultural areas. In their efforts to help develop these areas, they are offering loans with 100% financing (0% down) that allow you to roll the closing costs into the loan.

In other words, No Down Payment, No Closing Costs What you also might not have known is that almost all of Collier County and much of Lee county and Charlotte County (in other words, most of South West Florida) are designated either rural or rural fringe areas, both qualifying for USDA loans.

Can anybody qualify for a USDA loan?

No. There are restrictions based on location and income. If you have a 6-figure income and are looking to buy a $ 900,000 condo on the water in Downtown Naples, I’m not sure why you would need 0% down or no closing costs–and, this program isn’t going to help you. However, if you are making in the area of $ 40k-50k per year or less, then you are shaping up nicely as someone that might benefit from this program. Each county is different, and the income restrictions are different for single buyers, married, and buyers with families, but you can check on updated restrictions on the USDA website.

How can I learn if I qualify?

If you are interested in buying a house in a rural fringe area, in SWFL or anywhere else, you are going to need to check if the loan is available in your area. The USDA website listed below will help guide you there. An easy way to do this would also be to speak with a Loan Officer that has access to the program. My company does, and we’d be happy to help you see if you qualify!

Ryan Shore

Senior Loan Officer

Transcontinental Lending Group

Florida woman gets land-clearing company to bulldoze trailer of neighbor she doesn’t like

62-year-old Ana Maria Moreta Folch of St. Johns County, Florida wanted a trailer and septic tank demolished, so she contacted a land-clearing company. After showing a heavy equipment operator that she had a key to the trailer and claiming that nobody was currently living inside, the company got to work. As Jacksonville.com reports, there was one small problem with this – Ms. Folch didn’t own the trailer. Her neighbor did.

Ana Maria Moreta Folch (St. Johns County Sheriff's Office via Jacksonville.com)

The owner, Maria Gottfried, showed up to see what was going on and called the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office. When a deputy arrived, Ms. Gottfried explained that she had owned the mobile home since 2006 and that she had never given Ms. Folch a key. Jacksonville.com, citing an arrest report, says that Ms. Folch claims she had the trailer bulldozed because, “people who had lived there were unsavory and she suspected they had broken into her car. She said she considered it a favor to her neighborhood.” This ‘favor’ wound up causing approximately $25,000 in damage. Ms. Folch was charged with criminal mischief.

More info: Jacksonville.com

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Cellphone saves Florida store clerk from robber's bullet

ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - A convenience store clerk in Florida can thank his cellphone for stopping a bullet fired at his chest during an attempted robbery, police said on Tuesday.

"He was very lucky," said Lieutenant Scott Allen of the Winter Garden Police Department.

The middle-aged clerk, who police are not identifying for his safety, was shot at by a robber who ordered him and a female clerk to open the safe at a gas station and convenience store near Orlando, Florida, on Monday.

"He (the clerk) was not able to open the safe," Allen said. "The suspect went to leave, he pointed the revolver at one of the clerks and fired a single shot as he was leaving the store."

The clerk's cellphone was in the breast pocket of his baggy shirt.

"When it first happened, he checked himself to see if he was shot. He didn't see anything," Allen said. "Sometime later after the police were on the scene, he mentioned he had a little bit of chest pain. So they started looking into it and realized his cellphone had been shot."

The man did not suffer any injuries, Allen said.

The bullet remained lodged in the phone. Police suspect it came from a .22 or .25 caliber handgun, he said.

(Reporting by Barbara Liston; Editing by Kevin Gray and Paul Simao)

Crime & JusticeSociety & Culture

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Florida man selling ‘extra terrestrial vehicle’ on eBay

Mike Vetter's

It’s not quite an unidentified flying object, but one car for sale on eBay this week could easily be mistaken as something from another world.

Owner Mike Vetter describes the vehicle as a combination of parts including fold up doors reminiscent of a DeLorean, completely hidden wheel rims, a color-changing LED lighting system, “which create a nice light show in the evenings,” underneath the car. It’s even fuel efficient, getting about 26mpg.

“You are looking at a vehicle which receives more pictures taken of it on a daily basis then any Lamborghini or Ferrari,” Vetter writes in the car’s description. ‘The ride is smooth, solid and reliable. Due to the shape of the car the faster you go it seems to get more quiet inside.”

It’s just one of 60 custom cars Vetter says he’s built over the past 20 years but it may be his most unique creation. The car’s unusual casing almost makes it appear to be gliding on air but it actually runs on a fairly standard Chevy engine.

Vetter says he “built this car from scratch,” using fiberglass and carbon. However, the custom creation isn’t cheap. Vetter is asking for a minimum bid of $100,00 for the vehicle.

Another angle on Mike Vetter's

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Florida boy, 7, finds ancient canoe while scuba diving

Sept. 19, 2013: Julia Byrd, a senior archaeologist with the Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research points out a burn mark on a dugout canoe found in Owen Lake in the Ocala National Forest east of Ocala, Fla.AP

OCALA, Fla. –  A 7-year-old boy may have uncovered a piece of history while scuba diving with his grandfather at Owen Lake near Ocala.

Koen Ergle saw a piece of wood in about 8 feet of water a couple of weeks ago and pointed it out to his grandfather, former Marion County Sheriff Ken Ergle.

His grandfather wanted to keep moving, but Koen was persistent.

"He was on my secondary respirator and I could hear him making noises and pointing to the wood," Ken Ergle told the Ocala Star-Banner. "I started fanning the sand off and still wasn't quite sure what it was."

He thought it was an old stump or a piece of a dock, but his grandson said it looked like a canoe. And, after two weekends of digging, they found out he was right. A nearly 20-foot canoe emerged from the lake bed.

"This is very complete, this is in good shape," said Julia Byrd, a senior archaeologist for the Bureau of Archaeological Research, Division of Historical Resources said Thursday. "These are ones we can really learn from."

Byrd was among the officials who came to the site near Ocala to see the canoe. It will be slowly dried and eventually put on display at the Marion County Museum of History and Archaeology.

Byrd took samples to carbon date the canoe, which some believe could be several hundred years old, and to find out what kind of wood was used to build it.

"Many of the canoes found in Florida turn out to be made of pine, rather than cypress," Byrd said. "It's really hard to tell if they are prehistoric or historic. We use to think that the more refined canoes came later, but that is not always the case. People have been living in this area for thousands of years, so that is why we are doing carbon dating."

The process will take several months.

The family donated the canoe to the museum.

"We just moved here two months ago," said the boy's father, Nick Ergle. "It's amazing to think all the history that has gone on in this area."

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Florida 'hiccup girl' guilty of 1st degree murder

Sept. 17, 2013: Jennifer Mee, center, looks at potential jurors as jury selection begins her murder trial at the Pinellas County Justice Center in Clearwater, Fla.AP

CLEARWATER, Fla. –  A Florida woman who became famous for her uncontrollable hiccupping was found guilty of first-degree murder Friday night and will serve life in prison without parole.

A Pinellas County jury deliberated for four hours before delivering the verdict against 22-year-old Jennifer Mee.

Mee wept in the Clearwater courtroom as the verdict was read. Minutes later, Judge Nancy Moate Ley explained that the only possible sentence for the charge was life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The verdict and five-day trial was a sad end to a chapter in Mee's short and sad life. Her attorneys said she suffered from schizophrenia and Tourette's Syndrome, and a court psychiatrist said Mee's intelligence was "low normal."

As a 15-year-old, Mee developed a case of the hiccups that wouldn't go away. She appeared on several TV shows and while on the "Today" show, was hugged by fellow guest and country music star Keith Urban. She tried home remedies and consulted medical specialists, a hypnotist and an acupuncturist, until the hiccups finally stopped on their own, though not for good.

Her attorney, John Trevena, said his client was on medication to control the hiccupping, and even then, she occasionally had bouts.

She hiccupped briefly during one day of her murder trial.

In 2010, Mee lured Shannon Griffin, a 22-year-old Wal-Mart worker, to an abandoned home under the pretense of buying marijuana. Once there, two of Mee's friends robbed Griffin at gunpoint -- but he struggled and was shot four times.

Mee's co-defendant, LaRon Raiford, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in August. Lamont Newton, the other co-defendant who was also Mee's boyfriend at the time of the crime, has not yet gone to trial.

Trevena said his client did not orchestrate the robbery and that there wasn't enough evidence to convict her. But prosecutors said Mee did set everything up, and used police interviews and a taped jailhouse phone call between Mee and her mother as evidence.

During the call, she told her mother that she did not pull the trigger of the gun that killed Griffin, but that she was charged with murder.

"Because I set everything up," Mee explained during the call that was played for the jury. "It all went wrong, Mom. It just went downhill."

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Florida resort hit by sinkhole invites guests to 'come on down'

By Barbara Liston

ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - A Florida time-share resort where a sinkhole devoured a building Sunday night said that it is open for business and next week's guests should "come on down."

Paul Caldwell, the general manager of Summer Bay Resorts, which is located 6 miles from Walt Disney World, made the pitch to guests at a news conference on Tuesday. He said that geological and structural testing under way on the 100-foot wide cavern and the surrounding buildings should be complete by Wednesday.

Guests staying in the downed building were evacuated by an alert security guard who ran inside to wake occupants as the structure was twisting and collapsing around him. No one was injured.

A total of 36 people were evacuated from two buildings on the sprawling 64-acre property, which has a total of 900 units, the resort said.

The state of Florida, which is prone to sinkholes because of its porous limestone foundation, is set this fall to begin the creation of a statewide geological map showing the relative vulnerabilities to sinkholes. The map could be used by local governments making decisions on building permits.

The map project received funding two weeks ago for its first stage with a $1.1 million grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which follows a spate of sinkholes in 2012 in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Debby, according to Patrick Gillespie, spokesman for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

Sinkholes are a common feature of Florida's landscape, typically becoming sites for springs, lakes and portions of rivers after they occur. They most commonly occur as a result of naturally acidic underground water flowing through and dissolving the underlying limestone. North and central Florida generally are more vulnerable than south Florida, Gillespie said.

In 2012, a long drought lowered the water table and emptied natural voids in the limestone, which then collapsed under the weight of torrential rains from Debby, Gillespie said.

In March, a sinkhole under a Tampa-area home opened and swallowed the bedroom of 37-year-old landscaper Jeff Bush, whose body was never recovered.

In 1981, in Winter Park near Orlando, a sinkhole measuring 320 feet wide and 90 feet deep swallowed a two-story house, part of a Porsche dealership and an Olympic-size swimming pool. The site is now an artificial lake.

(Editing by David Adams and Leslie Adler)

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Rescued Florida sea turtle headed for Las Vegas casino "retirement"

MIAMI (Reuters) - An ailing 320-pound, green sea turtle, believed to be about 50 years old, was packed in a customized FedEx crate to be shipped to Las Vegas on Thursday to give it a better home at a luxury casino.

The turtle, named OD, after a dive charter boat that rescued it in 2008, has been cared for at the Florida Keys-based Turtle Hospital for almost five years. It cannot be released due to an irreparable collapsed lung that left it floating on its side.

Officials at the Turtle Hospital decided OD needed a better home with a larger and more stimulating environment.

The Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas offered to give OD a home for his "retirement" at its 1.6-million-gallon aquarium which already houses several sea turtles.

"He's ready now for a forever home ... where he can live out his life," said Turtle Hospital Manager Bette Zirkelbach.

FedEx is providing free air transportation for OD for the 2,400-mile trip to Las Vegas in a specially moisturized and foam-padded crate, accompanied by Zirkelbach and Turtle Hospital founder Richie Moretti.

(Writing by David Adams; Editing by Nick Zieminski)

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Winning ticket for $590.5 million Powerball lottery sold in Florida

By Brendan O'Brien

(Reuters) - A single winning ticket for a record Powerball lottery jackpot worth $590.5 million was sold in Florida, organizers said late on Saturday, but there was no immediate word about who won one of the largest jackpots in U.S. history.

The winning numbers from Saturday night's drawing were: 10, 13, 14, 22 and 52, with a Powerball number of 11. The odds of winning were put at 1 in 175 million.

The winning ticket was sold at a Publix supermarket in Zephyrhills, a suburb of Tampa, according to the Florida Lottery.

The winner or winners had not come forward as of Sunday morning, said Connie Barnes, a Florida Lottery spokeswoman. The winning ticket holder's name will become part of the public record because a check will be made out to the winner, but that person or persons need not appear in public to acknowledge the prize, Barnes said.

The grand prize, accumulated after two months of drawings, surpassed the previous record Powerball payoff of $587.5 million set in November 2012.

The largest jackpot in U.S. history stands at $656 million, won in the Mega Millions lottery of March 2012. That prize was split between winners in Maryland, Kansas and Illinois.

The Multi-State Lottery Association, based in Iowa, announced the Powerball results in a brief message on its website, saying, "There was one winner sold by the Florida Lottery for the last drawing's $590,500,000 grand prize."

The extremely long odds of winning did not deter people from buying tickets at staggering rates. California was selling $1 million in tickets every hour on Saturday, said Donna Cordova, a spokeswoman for the California Lottery, which has only been selling Powerball tickets since April 8.

The $2 tickets allow players to pick five numbers from 1 to 59, and a Powerball number from 1 to 35.

(Additional reporting by Karen Brooks in Austin, Texas, and Steve Gorman in Los Angeles.; Editing by Daniel Trotta, Christopher Wilson and Cynthia Osterman)

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Florida man feared dead after sinkhole swallows him

SEFFNER, Florida (Reuters)-a Florida man was missing and feared dead on Friday after a large Sinkhole suddenly engulfed the bedroom of her suburban home, Tampa police and fire officials said.

Jeff Bush, 36, was in his room sleeping and five other family members were getting ready for bed on Thursday night, when they heard a loud crash and Jeff screaming.

Jeff's brother, 35-year-old Jeremy Bush, jumped into the hole and furiously kept digging to find his brother.

"I feel in my heart that he didn't make it," Jeremy said Tampa station WFTS-TV. "There were six of us at home; five got. "

Jeremy the same had to be saved from sinkhole of first responder to the emergency call, Douglas Duvall of the Sheriff's Office in Hillsborough County. When Duvall entered the bedroom of Jeff Bush, all I saw was a growing chasm but no sign of Jeff.

"The hole took the entire bedroom," says Duvall. "You could see the bed frame, Dresser, everything was sinking," he said.

Norman Wicker, 48, the father of Jeremy's girlfriend who has also lived in the House, ran to get a flashlight and a shovel.

"Looked like a car ran into the back of the House," said wicker.

Authorities had not detected any sign of life after listening devices and cameras lowered into the hole and rescue efforts were suspended after the site has been deemed too dangerous for rescue personnel to enter.

"There is a very large mass, very fluid under this House making the whole House and the entire lot, dangerous and unsafe," Bill Bracken, head of an engineering company that assists fire and rescue officers, told a press conference late on Friday.

"We are still trying to determine the extent and nature of what is down there, so we can better determine how to approach it and to extricate, said Bracken.

Several nearby houses were evacuated in case the 30 feet (9 meters) wide Sinkhole has gotten larger but officials said that appeared to be increasingly profound.

The Bush brothers worked together as landscapers, according to Leland Wicker, 48, one of the other inhabitants of the House.

The risk of sinkholes is common in Florida due to porous geological substratum status, according to the Florida Department of environmental protection. As rainwater percolates down into the Earth, melts the rock causing erosion that can lead to underground caverns, sinkholes when causing collapse.

Florida suffered one of its worst accidents sinkhole in 1994 when a 15-story-deep chasm opened East of Tampa at a phosphate mine. Created a hole 185 feet deep and more than 160 feet wide. Locals dubbed newest attraction at Disney World-' journey to the center of the Earth. '

In 1981 in Winter Park, near Orlando, a sinkhole was measured as 320 feet wide and 90 feet deep, swallow a two-storey house, part of a Porsche dealership and an Olympic-size pool. The site now is an artificial lake in the city.

"Mortgage companies are more and more requiring Florida home buyers to have a Sinkhole coverage on their insurance policy homeowners," said K.C. Williams, a sinkhole damage and Tampa property claims lawyer who lives 2 miles away from home damaged.

(Additional reporting by David Adams and Tom Brown; Written by Kevin Gray; Editing by Tom Brown and Lisa Shumaker)

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