Here’s a helpful hint to anyone wishing to run a million-dollar insurance scam — don’t post pictures on Facebook of you and your friends waving wads of cash. [More]
florida
Florida Police Bust Garages For Illegal Tows, Insurance Fraud After Owners Seen Flashing Cash On Facebook
By 2.17.12
Thousands Of Floridians Line Up To Remind Us That Not Everyone Has A 52" 3D TV
By 1.26.12
It’s been years since over-the-air broadcasts switched to a digital signal, requiring everyone with an old school TV and an antenna to go out and get a set-top converter box so they can drool over Mark Harmon on NCIS. But lest you think that means everyone has jumped on the digital bandwagon, there are still pockets of TV viewers living in an analog world. [More]
Circle K Staffer Fired For Foiling Armed Robbery
By 12.30.11
Imagine you’re working at a Circle K (or any other store of its type) when a trio of wannabe robbers enter and begin waving a gun at you. What do you do? And more importantly, are you thinking about company policy or your own safety? [More]
Tampa Woman Lines Up 9 Days Early For Best Buy's Black Friday Sale
By 11.17.11
While thousands of people her age are busy camping out in various Occupy movements around the country, a Florida woman decided last night to occupy the sidewalk outside her local Best Buy in order to be the first person to be disappointed by the Black Friday offerings on Nov. 25. [More]
Man Sues Bank Of America For Handing His Account Over To Someone With The Same Name
By 11.16.11
A man in Greece has filed a lawsuit against Bank of America, alleging that the financial institution screwed up and gave his account — and his $59,000 — to another person with the same name. [More]
Man Tries To Rob Burger King With A Sock
By 11.9.11
You know the economy is bad when crooks can’t even afford decent stick-up weapons. Police have arrested a man who tried to rob a Burger King, using a sock. [More]
How A Sheriff Uses His 10,000 Facebook Fans To Solve Crimes
By 10.31.11
Sheriff Al Lamberti, 54, is like The Consumerist with a badge and a gun. [More]
Copper Traded For Crack
By 10.26.11
Some enterprising drug dealers are helping copper thieves cut out the middleman. They’re accepting copper pipe as legal tender in exchange for crack cocaine. [More]
Lime Mexican Grill Turns Arizona Immigration Controversy Into Marketing
By 9.28.11
Among the many hot-button debates of the last few years has been the state of Arizona’s controversial proposals to deal with the issue of illegal immigration. But while both sides of the debate take the topic very seriously, the folks at Southeastern restaurant chain Lime Mexican Grill have decided to have some fun with it. [More]
Comcast Installer Arrested For Exposing & Playing With His Cable In Front Of Customer
By 9.20.11
Whenever you open the door for a cable installer, plumber, contractor, etc, you are not only trusting that these people will do a decent job — or at least the job they are being paid to do — but that they won’t violate your trust by, ya know, exposing their genitals and masturbating in your living room. [More]
Man Arrested While Siphoning 250 Gallons From Gas Station
By 9.9.11
Sometimes gas siphoning thieves are found when they accidentally get gas in their mouths when trying to initiate the transfer from a gas tank to their canisters. This one was caught after the gas station owner got suspicious about the minivan sitting on his lot. When police arrived, they opened the doors to find a generator-powered vacuum slurping up 250 gallons of diesel from the station’s tanks into the plastic drums inside the retrofitted van. [More]
Anti-Baggy Pants Bill Takes Effect In Florida Schools
By 9.6.11
Senator Gary Siplin of Florida greeted returning high school students this week by personally handing out leather belts. It was a reminder that the law he got passed last spring, which requires that schools adopt dress codes that ban baggy, saggy, and underwear-showing pants, was now in full effect. [More]
Orlando Shell Station Charges $5.59/Gallon, Shocking Drivers
By 8.31.11
Gas prices are high, but $5.59 a gallon? That’s what drivers pulling up to a Shell station at in Orlando, FL are paying. They say they don’t find out what the price is until they get their receipt. Talk about Shell-shock. [More]
Walmart Shopper Sacrifices Minivan To Stop Shoplifters From Fleeing
By 8.24.11
A customer at a Florida Walmart was one of several people who spotted two women run out the store’s front door with a cart full of allegedly stolen merchandise. And when he saw this pair try to escape in a car, he decided it was time to intervene. [More]
Waitress Gets Revenge On Tough Customers By Skimming Their Credit Cards
By 8.16.11
A waitress at a Port Richey, FL, restaurant was recently arrested for allegedly using a credit card skimmer to steal customers’ information for the purposes of creating bogus cards. But, she tells the police, the customers she cheated were not nice to her anyway. [More]
Bank Tries To Foreclose On Gas Station Owner For Being One Day Late With Mortgage Payment
By 8.4.11
A gas station owner in Florida’s monthly mortgage payment bounced on October 12th. The next day he put the money required into the bank account. In November and December he tried to make his mortgage payments as normal, but BB&T wouldn’t take his money. 10 months later, they still won’t take it. Instead, they want to foreclose on his gas station. All for being one day late. [More]
Florida Restaurant Sues Wendy's Over "You Can't Fake Fresh" Slogan
By 7.15.11
Many of the trademark infringement stories we cover involve mammoth corporations picking on smaller, unrelated businesses, but this one’s a bit different. A small chain of seafood restaurants in Florida has filed a $2 million lawsuit against Wendy’s over the use of the phrase “You can’t fake fresh.” [More]
Recession Turns Homeowner Association Fights Brutal
By 7.13.11
Florida is full of condo complexes run by homeowner’s associations. After you’ve bought and paid for your condo, all you have to do is pay the monthly maintenance fees and you get trim lawns, a snappy billiards room, and a clean shuffleboard area. But as the economy stews in its own juices, the AP reports, some seniors living on a fixed income are having trouble making these monthly payments – and no wonder, with special assessments of $6,000 – and are getting foreclosed on by their own neighbors for as little as being 60 days past due on their fees. Some of them have also stopped making payments in protest over things like the rats, and the sewage raining on their head: [More]
