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The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has charged a Plant City minor with animal cruelty after seeing the worst kind of clout-chasing video circulating on social media. The video, recorded last Thursday in a Plant City Hardee's parking lot, shows a group of teens handling a juvenile alligator roughly. One uses the gator's teeth to puncture a can of Arizona Twisted Tea, then shotgun the alcoholic beverage with the young reptile still clamped to the aluminum can. “The lack of respect and responsibility shown toward this animal was disappointing to see. … This serves as a strong reminder of...

She’d probably flunk an IQ test, too. A Florida woman tried to pass a court-ordered drug test with a mixture of “soda and tap water,” that she had hidden “inside herself” in a pill bottle, police documents show. Shannon Hunter, 44, of Plant City, was required last week to submit a urine sample to probation officers after pleading guilty to felony drug charges in January, according to documents obtained by The Smoking Gun. Hunter, who had admitted to charges of possessing painkillers without a prescription and theft, apparently tried to dupe the officers and pass the drug test. According to...

Lionel B Show has 90 million views and countingThings were looking down for Lionel Barnes in late 2018. He’d been let go from his information technology job in Plant City. A rocky relationship had ended. He was soon sleeping in his 20-year-old Mercedes with his teenage son, Lionel Jr. He’d park in front of fast food restaurants in Tampa and use the free internet to apply for jobs. Trying to figure out how to come up with some money, he remembered his old Google Adsense account. The platform allows YouTube video creators -- something Barnes dabbled in with little success...

Talk about bad luck. A Florida man was arrested Thursday for impersonating a law enforcement officer after pulling over an actual sheriff’s deputy, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office. Authorities said Barry Lee Hastings Jr., 35, of Plant City, was traveling eastbound on I-4 about 8:30 p.m. Thursday in his black Crown Victoria when he pulled behind an off-duty Lee County deputy and flashed his emergency lights. The deputy pulled over to the shoulder and the Crown Victoria rolled up besides him. Hastings reportedly told the deputy to “slow down.”

A 53-year-old man stole a knife from a Lowe's Home Improvement Center, then died after he impaled himself on it as he ran from the store, the Plant City Police Department said. Police said they received a call about 6:40 p.m. about a shoplifting in progress. Store officials told them a white male subject -- identified as Jerry Ellis Word, 53 of Lakeland -- had entered the store, 2801 James L. Redman Parkway, removed a knife from its packaging, then hid it on his person. Word then left the store without paying for it. When he was confronted by store...

PLANT CITY - Plant City Chapter 1931 of the United Daughters of the Confederacy will meet at 10 a.m. July 20, at the 1914 Plant City High School Community Center, 605 N. Collins St. Guest speaker will be Scott L. Peeler Jr. He will present a program on ``Confederates in Brazil,'' dealing with a group of Confederate soldiers who formed a colony in Brazil after the Civil War. The program is free and open to the public. For information, call (813) 752-0243.