An eighty-two year old Tampa Bay man has lost everything he owns, including pictures of his dead wife, after a clean-out crew hired by Bank of America mistook his house for the foreclosure next door. [More]
florida
Homeowners Bring Sheriff's Deputies To Bank Of America Branch To Collect Unpaid Debt
By 6.3.11
Earlier today, in a move not terribly dissimilar to the Philadelphia homeowner who attempted to “foreclose” on Wells Fargo, a Florida couple showed up at a Bank of America branch with two sheriff’s deputies, ready to claim office assets to satisfy an unpaid debt. [More]
Lightning Fan Outsmarts HOA's No Sign Rule
By 5.9.11
A Tampa Bay Lightning fan showed his support over his team getting into the Eastern Conference finals by putting a sign on his lawn that said “Go Bolts!” which was unfortunately in violation of his Homeowner Association’s “no signs” rule. They informed him of this violation via a letter with a picture of his house, a letter that also revealed a caveat. Security signs were allowed. So at the top of the sign he wrote in small letters, “Protected by:” and at the bottom he wrote “security.” Nice deke! [More]
FBI Busts "B-Girls" For Luring Miami Tourists To Rack Up Huge Bar Bills
By 4.18.11
The con was pretty straightforward. Sexy eastern European women working the South Beach strip in Miami would pick up guys at hotels who looked like they had money and entice them back to private clubs with champagne bottle service. The man would think that he was paying a couple of hundred dollars, but actually his credit card was getting swiped for thousands. In one instance, the bill came to $43,000. Now the FBI has swooped in and arrested 17 people connected to the “b-girl” scheme, reports the Miami Herald. [More]
Tomato Thieves Terrorize Florida Trucking Industry
By 4.15.11
These tomato thieves aren’t just naughty bunnies nibbling in your garden, but a sophisticated band of crooks taking advantage of the high price of produce right now to take in $300,000 hauls, reports the NYT. [More]
Bank Gives Failed Flipper Foreclosed House For Free
By 4.11.11
A guy who deserves no breaks at all, a speculator who jumped onto the house-flipping craze just before the music stopped, just got a huge one. Instead of making the final stroke to finish foreclosing on his house, the bank decided to write off the loan and just give it to him for free instead. [More]
Bikini-Clad Burger King Customer Goes Wild On Customers & Staff
By 3.24.11
What in the world is going on with the Burger King customers in Florida. Earlier this month, there was the woman who climbed over the counter and chased employees out of the building. Now she’s been done one better by a bikini-clad customer who caused a wild scene — which was luckily all caught on video. [More]
17.45% Of Florida Homes Are Vacant
By 3.21.11
The latest Census Bureau results show that 17.45% of homes in Florida are vacant. That’s 1.558 million houses sitting there soaking up the sun. Florida’s housing bubble was one of the hottest and now their vacancy rate is the highest. [More]
Millionaire Dentist Steals Navy Vet's Credit Card And Buys 2 Large Pizzas
By 3.11.11
A millionaire dentist has been charged with credit-card theft and forgery after stealing a credit card from a Navy veteran and buying two large pizzas with it, reports WTSP. [More]
Angry Burger King Customer Climbs Over Counter To Attack Employees
By 3.8.11
A Burger King customer in South Florida was so peeved at the fast food eatery’s staffers that she crawled over the counter and began tossing food at them. Luckily, it was all caught on camera. [More]
Florida Motorists Illegally Detained For Paying With Large Bills
By 3.8.11
Is it a crime to pay a $1 toll with a $100 bill? The people responsible for counting out change might wish that it were, but paying a toll with legal tender isn’t a crime. Toll collectors in Florida allegedly asks motorists for personal information and illegally detained them for paying with bills deemed too large. Even better? Toll takers flagged and detained drivers paying with bills as small as $20 based on racial profiling. [More]
Florida Bans Coke-And-Meth-Like "Bath Salts" Sold In Gas Stations
By 2.8.11
Florida became the second state after Louisiana to ban sales of MDPV, a synthetic drug with effects similar to meth and cocaine that sellers are marketing as “bath salts,” NPR reports. They can be found in convenience stores and gas stations. Besides their high, authorities have said that the drug produces a psychotic break in their users, afflicting them with violent hallucinations. In one case, a man tore out a police radio from the car with his teeth. In another, a woman went after her mother with a machete, having confused her with a monster. Party time! [More]
Dreams For Sale: Lehigh Acres
By 1.10.11
Consumerist reader Raymond Schillinger made a documentary called called Dreams For Sale: Lehigh Acres about Lehigh Acres, a town in Florida carved out of nothing, filled up with speculative houses during the boom, and now seems destined to ruin, though a contingent of hopeful/hopeless homesteaders still cling on. Through interviews with townsfolk, local business owners and politicians, Raymond captures, “both the history of deceptive real estate practices that helped build Lehigh Acres a half-century ago and the contemporary foreclosure crisis that has ravaged the area.” [More]
UNC Chapel Hill Is The Best Deal In Public Colleges
By 1.4.11
Kiplinger’s has released their rankings of the 100 best values for public colleges and universities — and the winner is… the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. [More]
Man Sues Restaurant For Not Stopping Him From Eating An Entire Artichoke
By 12.23.10
A doctor has sued the Houston’s restaurant in Miami after he ate a complete artichoke that he ordered, including the spiny and sharp exterior leaves. He subsequently suffered “severe abdominal pain and discomfort,” and a “exploratory laparotomy” showed that the artichoke leaves were jammed in his “small bowel.” His lawsuit claims that he had “never seen nor heard of previously” an artichoke and that it was the restaurant’s fault for not teaching him how to eat it. [More]
Speak Up At The Wendy's Drive-Thru Or You Might Get Punched In The Face
By 12.14.10
Next time you’re ordering a Frosty at the Wendy’s drive-thru, be sure to speak loudly enough so that the person taking your order can hear you. If not, she might just come outside and rip those cheap extensions out of your head. [More]
Man Orders McMuffin, Shoots Self, Doesn't Realize It
By 12.10.10
Here’s what you might call an unlikely sequence of events. A man enters a McDonald’s in the Florida Keys. The man orders breakfast. The man shoots himself in the leg. The manager asks the man to leave the restaurant, then calls police. Police pull the man over and only then does he realize he shot himself. [More]
Woman Fights Foreclosure For 25 Years
By 12.7.10
This lady has been successfully fighting off foreclosure for twenty-five years, pulling out every trick in the book along the way. But her winning streak may be drawing to a close. [More]
