Free Republic

A Florida man was arrested after authorities say he stalked a woman he met on a dating app and stole a teddy bear containing the woman’s son’s ashes. According to the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office, deputies were dispatched on Aug. 1 to help Flagler Beach Police Department officers with an investigation into a suspect, identified as Justin Fountain, after a woman went to Flagler Beach police and said Fountain had “become increasingly controlling and aggressive.” “According to the victim, Fountain tracked her location, following her around Flagler County, and stole her child’s ashes from her despite her asking to stop...

An 'experimental explosion' has been detected off the coast of Florida, nearly two weeks after a similar event occurred. The US Geological Survey (USGS) detected a 3.9 magnitude earthquake east of Flagler Beach on Tuesday. It was listed with a depth of zero feet, indicating the seismic source was at or very near the surface, a characteristic more consistent with an explosion than a typical tectonic shake. The location is about 20 miles from where another event was recorded on July 16, east of Ponce Inlet, an area where the US Navy is known to conduct Full Ship Shock Trials...

Despite the county-wide lifting of a mask mandate, including in government buildings, the director of a Florida health department threatened to call the police when a mother refused to put on a mask. On Oct. 6, Casey Goff—a Flagler Beach resident and mother of four—went to the Flagler County Health Department with her 3-year-old daughter to apply for a religious exemption. The effort was part of a proactive measure to opt out of any future efforts by the Flagler County School Board (FCSB) to impose mask mandates on her children. “I walked in and a lady offered me a mask,”...

Deputies arrested a 28-year-old woman April 18 after dispatchers got a frantic 911 call from a man who said he was in his SUV on northbound I-95, and his girlfriend was attacking his genitalia. His son, in the car with several other children, filmed at least part of the attack on his cell phone as deputies found the victim’s car on I-95. Deputies followed it as dispatchers told the victim to pull off on State Road 100, and then stopped the car at a Kangaroo gas station, according to an arrest report. Two deputies spoke separately to the man and...