Bad timing. A new international airport opens up in Panama City, Florida today — only 100 miles away from the notorious BP oil spill off the coast of Louisiana. Instead of celebrating, the area’s visitor’s bureau is trying to convince tourists that the water is still clean. [More]
florida
Gulf Oil Spill Oil Reaches Loop Current
By 5.20.10
The NOAA announced that a “small” amount of oil from the BP oil spill has reached the Loop Current, a warm Gulf current that passes through east to the Florida Straits and could spread any oil up the East Coast. [More]
Florida DMV Tells Woman She Lives On "Eat Ass" Street
By 5.19.10
A woman in Florida got her driver’s license in the mail only to find that she apparently lived on “Eat Ass” street. Her entire street address is printed as “Eat Ass Englewood, FL 34223,” thus raising the question of how exactly they mailed the license to her. [More]
Tarballs Hit Key West
By 5.18.10
Key West park rangers found 20 3 to 8-inch tarballs Monday that had washed up onto the shores. Tarballs are blobs of oil that become weathered after travelling through the ocean. [More]
Lawsuit: Hotel Obliged Guest's Requests For Whites-Only Service
By 4.23.10
Are you a racist looking for a luxury hotel in Florida? Then the Ritz Carlton in Naples might just be the place for you. A lawsuit filed this week claims that when guests of the hotel asked to not be served by “people of color” or with “foreign accents,” the management agreed to their demands. [More]
Woman Takes Clothes Into Walmart Changing Room To Pee On Them
By 4.23.10
If there’s any lesson to be learned from this story it’s this: When you decide to take a bunch of clothes into a store’s changing room with the intention of voiding your bladder all over them, do not leave your wallet behind. [More]
Are Airlines Responsible For Hotels Booked On Their Sites?
By 4.2.10
A Consumerist reader wrote into us to complain about a horrible experience he had with a hotel in Ft. Lauderdale he booked while making flight reservations on United Airlines’ website. [More]
VIDEO: Florida Granny Accused Of Bilking Pals For $1 Million
By 4.1.10
Several years ago, a 70-something grandma in Florida fell victim to ye olde Nigerian e-mail scam, losing $10K in the process. But instead of moping and whining about it, the resourceful retiree learned from her mistake — literally — because police have accused her of earning over $1 million by running a similar scam on her friends. [More]
Drunk Carnival Cruise Passenger Makes Fake Bomb Threat, Activates Jerry Bruckheimer
By 3.29.10
A Jerry Bruckheimer movie was accidentally activated Sunday when an allegedly drunk Carnival Cruise passenger started yelling bomb threats as the boat was approaching Port Canaveral, FL. [More]
Rent Cars For $3-10 A Day… Just Get Them Out Of Florida
By 3.26.10
For some reason, there are a lot of rental car lots in Florida bursting at the seams with cars they need to distribute to the rest of the country. That’s why several national rental companies are offering dirt-cheap — as little as $3/day — one-way rentals, just so long as you get those cars out of Florida. [More]
Tampa's Stripper Mobile Is Back In Business
By 3.20.10
The Stripper Mobile is a rolling billboard for Tampa’s Déjà Vu gentlemen’s club. It’s a truck that rolls around the city with a glassed-in box in the back where bikini-clad strippers pole dance, gyrate, and distract every driver on the road. The city took the Stripper Mobile off the road because of…problems with the truck’s registration. The city, however, was concerned with the Stripper Mobile’s trips through residential neighborhoods, skimpy bikinis, and vigorous booty-shaking. Now the truck is back, in a much tamer form that will probably still piss people off. [More]
Thrifty Charges You For Gas Even Though You Returned It Full
By 3.17.10
Manny returned a rental car full of gas to Thrifty, yet they still ended up charging him $12.67 to top it off. Even after several days of escalating, they have yet to refund him his cash. [More]
Man Robs McDonald's Drive-Thru With Beer Bottle
By 3.15.10
As the world grows more and more technologically savvy, thieves continue to have success with old-fashioned methods. First there was the guy who robbed a Walmart with their own crowbar and now comes report of a man who not only managed to burgle a McDonald’s through the drive-thru window, but who did it with a broken beer bottle. [More]
Chase Thinks Boston Non-Smoker Bought $100 Worth Of Smokes In Florida
By 3.11.10
Now that Chase has reversed their initial decision and issued a refund to the retiree they accused of credit card fraud, maybe they can take a look at a rather similar case, but on a smaller scale. Reader P tells Consumerist that Chase ruled that he is responsible for some uncharacteristic purchases he purportedly made thousands of miles away from where he was at the time. [More]
Tropicana Hit By Grocery Shrink Ray, Introduces Half-ish Gallon Of OJ
By 3.10.10
The same crappy weather that has Wendy’s declaring a only-if-you-ask-for-them tomato policy has made Tropicana pull out ye olde Grocery Shrink Ray, reducing their half-gallon Pure Premium OJ jugs by 5 oz. to 59 oz. [More]
The $1,110.00 Six-Pack Of O'Douls
By 3.10.10
“It appears that non-alcoholic beer is a delicacy in Florida,” writes Aaron, who spotted this $1,100.00 six-pack of O’Douls in a Walgreens down there. [More]
Advice: Do Not Shave Your Privates While Driving
By 3.8.10
Much is said about distracted driving. Don’t text, don’t talk on the phone, don’t eat soup. Apparently nobody bothered to tell one Florida woman not to shave her privates while driving. Clearly, this was our mistake. [More]
Cash4Gold Stops Suing Whistleblowers; FL AG Launches Investigation
By 2.16.10
The lawsuit stemming from our post from last year, “10 Confessions Of A Cash4Gold Employee,” is all over. At the beginning of February, Cash4Gold stopped suing the two ex-employees Michele Liberis and Vielka Nephew. And just this Sunday, the Florida Attorney General announced they’ve opened a civil investigation into Cash4Gold. It seems you can still speak truth to power after all. [More]
