The first week of 2018 has been wild and wooly. Also, cold. So how has Floriduh Man! done this week?
Well Floriduh Man! drank too much, but who wouldn’t these days.
Friends of Floriduh Man! shouldn’t let Floriduh Man! fly drunk.
Dante Bencivenga apparently had a few too many while waiting for his Spirit Airlines flight.
The 58-year-old man nodded off in a chair by his gate around 9 p.m. Thursday night at Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers. Things went downhill for him once he woke up.
According to a police report provided by the Lee County Port Authority Police, a gate agent walked by the dozing Bencivenga and smelled alcohol.
The Fort Myers resident made it onto the aircraft, headed to Michigan. Once on board, officers say, the gate agent received a call from the flight attendant that the passenger had urinated all over the plane’s toilet, as well as on the floor.
After missing his mark, Bencivenga was asked to disembark from the plane, which was still at the gate. He reportedly became “belligerent,” cursing as he left.
Airport police were summoned. Spirit Airlines supervisor Stephen Gary Harris met the officers and apprised them of the situation. That’s when Bencivenga tried to break up the conversation and told Harris to “stop telling lies,” according to the police report. An officer, who attempted to get the story from the man himself, smelled “a strong odor of an alcohol beverage coming from him.”
After threatening to file a complaint against Spirit, Bencivenga denied he was inebriated and offered to take take a breathalyzer. The officer denied his request and informed the traveler he was to re-booked on a flight for the next day. That’s when he became more “agitated,” began “raising his voice” and yelling at agents, the police report said.
Since there were no more flights for the day, he was asked to leave the concourse or he would be arrested. After more ranting, police said he said, “Put the bracelets on me.” The officer complied, and Bencivenga was charged with trespassing and disorderly intoxication in a public place. He was transported to Lee County Jail and booked without incident.
Bencivenga did not make his rebooked flight. He was told not to return to airport property for one year.
However, some Floriduh Men!, after having one a couple of dozen too many, still have a sense of civic responsibility.
The Polk County Sheriff’s Office is commending a Winter Haven man for alerting authorities about a drunk driver on New Year’s Eve — but the caller ended up being the one arrested on DUI charges.
Michael Lester, 39, called 911 shortly before 9 p.m. to report that he was driving drunk “all over Winter Haven,” according to a call released by authorities Friday.
“I dunno. I’m drunk. I don’t know where I’m at,” he said when a dispatcher asked for his location.
Lester eventually told the dispatcher he was driving the wrong way near a Publix in Winter Haven. He had been driving around all night “trying to get pulled over,” he said.
“I think I’m going to go get something to eat and they can catch up with me,” he told the dispatcher shortly before hanging up.
Deputies found Lester on Sixth Street, near Avenue M. His red Ford F-150 was traveling south, with half of the vehicle in a left turn lane and the other half in the northbound lane, deputies said.
After pulling the truck over, “I ordered the driver to step out of the vehicle and he just sat there and stared at me as if he was confused,” a deputy wrote in an arrest report.
Lester was arrested on a charge of driving under the influence after failing a series of field-sobriety tests. He initially told deputies he drank two beers but later said it may have been three or four. Lester said he had only slept four hours during the past four days, and told deputies he had swallowed meth early that morning, according to an arrest report.
Finally, Floriduh Man! took his act on the road. To West by G-d Virginie!
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (WDTV) — A Florida man has been arrested in Morgantown on deer poaching charges.
The Morgantown Police Department says officers were dispatched to investigate suspicious activity in the woods behind a residence on Augusta Avenue.
When they arrived, officials say the officers found a white-tailed deer carcass that had been field-dressed not long before.
The officers then followed footprints to a residence on Augusta Avenue where they discovered 18-year-old Jason Herbert Berk of Boynton Beach, Florida. Officials say that further investigation revealed that Berk shot the deer from the residence’s front porch with a compound bow.
Berk is charged with Hunting Out of Season, Using an Artificial Light While Hunting and Unlawful Possession of Wildlife.
Stay warm!
Open thread!