iStockphoto / lawcain
Florida is a state unlike any other. In addition to having some of the craziest people in the nation, the Sunshine State has some pretty relaxed laws on the news reporting about these individuals. Alaska probably has the same level of WTF news as Florida but we don’t hear about it because of disproportionate coverage in the news.
You’ve all heard about the rise of ‘Florida Man’. The endless stream of news stories that start with the words ‘Florida Man’ and end with some string of batshit crazy words that have you scratching your head on how this is real-life and not The Onion.
Here’s the latest: a man in Ocala, Florida went ‘magnet fishing’ which is similar to those metal detector people you see at the beach. What the man found was a WWII hand grenade. Instead of turning it into the cops he took his hand grenade to Taco Bell:
Taco Bell on E. Silver Springs Blvd. has been evacuated. A man found a hand grenade while magnet fishing in Ocklawaha, put it in his trunk, and drove to Taco Bell prior to calling 911. MCSO bomb squad is currently on scene to ensure everyone’s safety. pic.twitter.com/sgGmXDkAXB
— Ocala Police (@ocalapd) January 26, 2019
via Gizmodo:
A Taco Bell in Ocala, Florida was evacuated on Saturday after a fisherman reportedly stumbled upon a hand grenade while magnet fishing and then drove it to a local Taco Bell, the Ocala Police Department said Saturday. The man was not identified by police, but he had reportedly been magnet fishing in neighboring Ocklawaha when he discovered the grenade. Police said that after having arrived at the fast food restaurant, he dialed 911.
It’s not clear why he chose to transport it to the Taco Bell before alerting the authorities, but no one was hurt in the incident. The department said that a bomb squad with the Marion County Sheriff’s Office was present “to ensure everyone’s safety.”
Interestingly, the cops identified the grenade as “an authentic WWII hand grenade,” though it’s not clear what kind. An image appears to show it could be a U.S. Mk 2 grenade. We reached out to the department for more information and will update this post if we hear back.
I feel like there was a time on BroBible when I morphing into a full-time apologist for my fellow Floridians. Almost every single day I’d be reporting about some crazy ass WTFlorida news and trying to scale it back with things like ‘we’re not all bad, I swear!’
These days, I’m inclined to just let the news wash over me and I’ve accepted that Florida is home to some of the craziest MoFos on the planet. Florida’s the Australia of America. Or Australia’s the Florida of the Pacific, it’s unclear.
I’ve never been Magnet Fishing myself but I fully plan on buying one of those metal detectors and hitting the beach real hard in retirement one day. For more on this story, you can visit Gizmodo.