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POINCIANA, Fla. — Going for a stroll through the neighborhood is one thing. Doing so naked, and disrupting neighbors, is another. The Osceola County Sheriff's Office says 23-year-old Giovanni Alcaraz rang multiple doorbells and tried to break into homes in a Poinciana neighborhood Monday night, leaving explicit surprises on some of the doorbell cams. "He's waving his fanny at the door," Osceola County Sheriff Marco Lopez said. Lopez says at least two homeowners called the police. "Somebody happens to look at their ring door camera and says, 'there's somebody naked in front of my house,'" Lopez said. Lopez says after...

OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. – A wanted man hiding from deputies since Tuesday in a swamp near Yeehaw Junction has been captured, according to the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office. It was announced on social media two days after Osceola deputies said they had “exhausted” search efforts for the man, identified as Cory Philippe, 32. According to photos posted to the sheriff’s office’s Facebook earlier in the week, search efforts began Tuesday while there was still daylight. The sheriff’s office sought Philippe in connection to an aggravated battery case. Deputies searched wooded areas and vacant homes about a half mile east of...

A man was arrested after he allegedly tried to steal from a Walmart in Florida while the store was filled with dozens of police officers. Osceola County Sheriff's Office, near Orlando, published a post on its Facebook page on Thursday saying it had arrested a man after he was caught trying to steal from a Walmart in St. Cloud. The incident happened during a "Shop with a Cop" event with local children. "Bad news, Brad!" the office wrote, adding: "Seriously we just can't make this up." The Walmart store was filled with nearly 40 deputies alongside the forensics team, the...

Florida man Jeremy Dewitte, 42, of Kissimmee is in the Osceola County jail for violating his probation for not deleting his YouTube account. Dewitte was finally taken into custody after barricading himself in his Kissimmee home. Osceola County deputies served Dewitte a warrant for violation of probation out of Orange County. The arrest comes a few months after his release from prison in September for impersonating a law enforcement officer in Orange County. Dewitte is also a convicted sex offender who apparently doesn’t live in reality. As he was being escorted out of his house by Osceola County sheriff’s deputies...

VIDEOExplosions at the August 16, 2022 Oceola School Board meeting among the members as angry castigations are hurled over the process of steamrolling no-bid contracts.

A dirt bike rider is fighting for his life after he was tasered by a police officer while pumping gas at a Florida gas station, causing the pump to explode and him to be 'cooked alive' in a giant fireball, his attorneys say. An internal investigation is currently underway over the Osceola County Sheriff's' handling of the incident. Meanwhile Barretto, who was reportedly targeted because he attended a banned motorbike enthusiast event that was broken up by cops, is set to be put in a medically induced coma as he undergoes more intense treatment The department recently adopted a zero-tolerance...

The defense attorney who represented George Zimmerman, who was acquitted in the 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin, was accused this week of witness tampering in a juvenile rape case. Osceola County Sheriff Marcos López in a news conference said Hal Uhrig was arrested on Monday and faces charges including solicitation to commit perjury and witness tampering, according to ABC News. Uhrig was representing a man accused of raping a 9-year-old and allegedly coordinated a meeting between his client and the victim and her father.

Osceola residents leaving their homes will be required to cover their nose and mouth with a mask or cloth. Osceola County leaders said Friday all residents will be required to cover their noses and mouths with a mask or cloth while out in public. County chairwoman Viviana Janer announced the new rule at a Friday press conference in response to the increasing number of coronavirus cases in the county just south of Orlando. “It’s not something we take lightly,” said Janer, stating the requirement is meant to protect the public from asymptomatic carriers. “The concern was preventing the spread from...

ORLANDO, Fla. - Imagine not being able to pay cash for some of the toll roads you use every day. It's already happened in and around Miami and near Tampa, but now it is going to be happening in Central Florida. The Florida Turnpike Enterprise confirmed that all Florida's Turnpike roadways are going to all-electronic tolling in a 70-mile stretch from Osceola County to Sumter County by next summer. According to FTE, the project will take place on Florida's Turnpike from Kissimmee Park Road at milepost 239 to I-75, which is at milepost 309. "They're going to continue on the...

The narratives of the midterm elections were set when suburban voters turned against President Trump, women racked up record numbers of electoral wins and Republicans dominated rural states and counties. But dive deeper into the results and some more surprising storylines emerge, from familial ties to long shot candidates, expanding suburbs and new battlegrounds. Here are the overlooked stories that didn’t get enough coverage after the polls closed. Did Puerto Ricans elect Rick Scott? When Hurricane Maria left Puerto Rico devastated in 2017, almost 400,000 of the island’s residents moved to the mainland. Many of them landed in Florida, where...

A lesbian couple have been charged with stealing a Pomeranian service dog from a 67-year-old Vietnam veteran, who died from a suspected heart attack just hours before he was to be reunited with his beloved pet. The Osceola County Sheriff's Office in Florida has announced the arrests of Jennifer Gotschall, 51, and Monique Cosser, 53, on grand theft charges for allegedly abducting Joseph Hanson's dog Kira. According to the agency, Hanson was taking a walk at Old Town in Kissimmee, Florida, on October 28 with his two Pomeranian service dogs, 21-year-old Kira and 11-year-old Star, when a woman he did...

Police have identified two Florida women accused of nabbing a service dog from a Vietnam veteran last month. The Osceola County Sheriff’s Office responded to a call on Oct. 28 that a Pomeranian service dog had disappeared without a trace. Its owner: a 67-year-old Vietnam veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder. Surveillance video shows one woman starting an altercation with the victim, while the other comes from behind, unleashes the dog, named Kira, and walks off with her, according to a press release from the sheriff’s office. Jennifer Gotschall, 53, and Monique Cosser, 51, were identified Wednesday after a tip to...

Alan Grayson has been out of office for more than a year, but his fundraising emails keep coming. Soon, the Florida Democratic Party could find out on which race all that money could be spent. And it may not like the answer. One expert said a scenario that worries party leaders is a primary battle against U.S. Rep. Darren Soto, D-Kissimmee, who succeeded Grayson in District 9 in Osceola County and southern Orange County. “He doesn’t care what people think, including his own party,” said Aubrey Jewett, a professor of political science at the University of Central Florida who closely...

Thursday night on MSNBC’s “All In With Chris Hayes,” Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL), Democratic hopeful for U.S. Senate, said supporters of Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump are racist and “the worst 1.2 percentin America.”

Greg Nash The House Ethics Committee publicly acknowledged Monday it is conducting a review into Florida Senate candidate Rep. Alan Grayson. In a statement, the panel said it will issue a decision on whether to open a formal investigation into Grayson's activities by April 5. If the committee decides not to proceed with an investigation, it must release the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) report on the case. Grayson's management of a hedge fund while serving as a member of Congress has been looming over the Aug. 30 Senate Democratic primary. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) earlier this...

A routine meeting of liberal Democrats grew heated on Wednesday when Rep. Alan Grayson(D-Fla.) went after Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) over ethics charges dogging Grayson as he vies for the Senate. Reid was a guest at the weekly gathering of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) when Grayson confronted him over Reid's previous calls for the Florida Democrat to resign from Congress over the ethics complaint, which accuses Grayson of running a hedge fund through his congressional office. "Shame on you. It’s not true," Grayson said, according to sources in the room. "It is true and I want you...

U.S. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid on Friday called for U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson to drop out of the race for a Senate seat in Florida. Reid said in a statement that Grayson claims to be progressive but seems to have "no moral compass." He said Grayson used his office to unethically promote a hedge fund that until recently had been based in the Cayman Islands. Grayson is running in the Democratic primary to replace U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio. His campaign did not immediately respond to Reid's call to quit the race. ...

Democratic congressman Alan Grayson reportedly unleashed a profanity-laced tirade against a reporter who questioned his offshore investments during a recent interview, angrily asking the journalist if he’s “some kind of s**tting robot” who goes around “s**tting on people.” The fiery moment reportedly came after Tampa Bay Times political editor Adam Smith inquired about some accounts in the Cayman Islands which he said Grayson “incorporated … so investors could avoid taxes”; the politician railed against this accusation.

There have been few progressives as angry about off-shore investment accounts as Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL). In 2011, not coincidentally while Mitt Romney readied his presidential campaign, Grayson wrote at the Huffington Post that Barack Obama should order “the IRS to audit every one of the Fortune 500″ corporations. Grayson wanted to stop them from “evading taxes through transfer pricing and offshore tax havens.”Grayson may have known more about that than first thought. Adam Smith of the Tampa Bay Times found out that Grayson himself had incorporated two funds in the Caymans later that same year, the same kind...

Rep. Alan Grayson (D., Fla.) is finding himself in hot water over managing hedge funds that bear his name, actions that are in possible violation of House ethics rules. Sitting members of Congress are prohibited from using their name in titles of entities for personal financial gain, Politico reports. Rep. Grayson has three hedge funds with his name attached to their title. One of Grayson’s funds, Grayson Fund L.P, is based out of Delaware and consists of three investors. According to November regulatory filings, the fund shows sales totaling $13.2 million.