Florida

Only in South Florida 2024: Run-ins with the law and a million-dollar fine – WSVN 7News | Miami News, Weather, Sports | Fort Lauderdale

Published

1 year ago

December 26, 2024

Only in South Florida 2024: Run-ins with the law and a million-dollar fine – WSVN 7News | Miami News, Weather, Sports | Fort Lauderdale

(WSVN) – If we told you this all happened in one area, you might say no way. Sued by a police officer who tripped on your property? Fined a million dollars by the city? All of it, and more, happened in South Florida, and it’s why we bring in Help Me Howard with Patrick Fraser.

Only in South Florida can you get out of the car to help your daughter unload her luggage and be breaking the law.

Matthew Zifroney: “Popped the trunk, I took one of her bags out, walked it over to the curbside, dropped the bag off.”

When Matthew walked back to his car at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, he was met by a Broward Sheriff’s Office deputy.

Matthew Zifroney: “And the officer said, ‘Why didn’t you respond to me when I was screaming out, who owns this car?’ And I said, ‘I’m real sorry, I didn’t hear you, I was 10 feet away, helping my daughter.’”

Ten feet away from his car, but the officer said he abandoned the vehicle.

Matthew Zifroney: “He said, ‘Ticket em,’ and I said, ‘Ticket me? Because I didn’t hear you call out for me?’ And he goes, ‘Yep, you’re being ticketed.’”

Matthew is an attorney and decided to fight the ticket. He told his side. The hearing officer’s conclusion?

Matthew Zifroney: “And she said, ‘Thank you. I’m confirming the ticket.’ And I said, ‘You’re confirming the ticket? I didn’t do anything wrong.’ ‘Sir, I’m confirming the ticket.’”

As we watched the hearings again and again, we saw people who got citations for unloading luggage at the curb. Listen to the hearing officer’s conclusion.

Woman: “I was taking my mother’s suitcase out of the car, back of the car and dragging it to the curb.”

Hearing officer: “You cannot leave the vehicle, even by one foot, to take it inside. OK?”

One foot out of the car, even though an ordinance does allow “loading or unloading of passengers or luggage.”

Howard’s conclusion?

Howard Finkelstein, 7News legal expert: “The code seems to indicate that the officers and hearing officers are wrong and misinterpreting the code, because you have a right to take passengers and the luggage to the curb.”

Last week, I emailed the hearing officer. She didn’t respond.

BSO said they only ticket abandoned cars, but Matthew said he was 10 feet from his car when he got the violation for abandoning the vehicle.

Matthew Zifroney: “A lot of people out there that are going to do what I did, that are doing nothing wrong, and they’re going to get tickets. I’m hoping that by me speaking out, we put a stop to that.”

We will see, Matthew. And from the “Only in South Florida,” meet Richard, who unfortunately has a problem with a Miami Police officer.

Richard Garcia: “My daughter said he just fell and went to the ground next to the pool table.”

The Garcias had called 911. Police and fire rescue responded. In their house, they have a pool table in a room you step into.

The officer, Miguel Angel Mercado, said he hurt his wrist when he fell on the floor.

Richard Garcia: “No, it didn’t look serious, it didn’t look serious. I mean, he was fine. He was doing everything else.”

But the officer is suing the Garcia family for over $100,000. Howard says he will lose, because the sunken living room is easy to see, but the court battle is the real pain to Richard.

Richard Garcia: “I felt kind of betrayed. I mean, you call rescue in the City of Miami to come to your house, and they turn around and they sue you because they weren’t paying attention?”

Speaking of feeling betrayed, Denny can sympathize.

Denny Dorcey: “It’s like having a bomb dropped on me. I just couldn’t believe it.”

Denny lives in Oakland Park and was notified the city was fining him $1,097,400 for violations that occurred before he bought his house.

Denny Dorcey: “Petty things like overgrown weeds, trashing the carport.”

The city waited 10 years to notify Denny about the prior owners’ violations, allowing the fines to grow $1 million-plus.

Denny Dorcey: “Devastating, wiped out. I felt like I was dead, but I was still alive.”

We contacted the city, pointed out that since Denny bought the house in foreclosure, that wiped out the lien and the fines.

The city agreed, and the $1 million penalty was eliminated.

Denny Dorcey: “Without you guys, they would have destroyed my life completely. There’s no doubt in my mind.”

Denny can restore cars, cabinets, you name it. We restored his faith in people.

Denny Dorcey: “Thank God. Thanks to you — Howard, Channel 7 News and Help Me Howard, man. You guys are like my guardian angels.”

Thank you, Denny, but I think the only person who called us holy was looking at our jeans.

Since Denny’s story aired, we have heard from more people in Oakland who said they got letters claiming they owed enormous sums of money for old violations. It’s not going to be a merry Christmas for a lot of Oakland Park homeowners.

Dealing with some bad luggage? Need somebody to police things for you? Don’t sue. Contact us. We don’t have a million ways to help you, but we only need one.

With this Help Me Howard, I’m Patrick Fraser, 7News.

CONTACT HELP ME HOWARD:
Email: helpmehoward@wsvn.com
Reporter: Patrick Fraser at pfraser@wsvn.com
Miami-Dade: 305-953-WSVN
Broward: 954-761-WSVN

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Florida

Florida man accused of using rifle in threatening another man at Wawa

Published

43 minutes ago

June 22, 2026

Press Room

Florida man accused of using rifle in threatening another man at Wawa

A 40-year-old man accused of using an AR-style rifle to threaten another man in a Wawa parking lot was arrested, according to a recently-obtained affidavit.

Jeremy Vigil, of the 700 block of Southwest Estate Avenue in Port St. Lucie, was arrested June 15 on aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and battery charges after the incident at a Wawa at Southwest Becker Road and Southwest Port St. Lucie Boulevard.

A man about 10 p.m. June 15 told Port St. Lucie police that he and Vigil completed a job together the weekend before, and Vigil was angry about payment.

The man said Vigil contacted him, telling him to meet with his money. He arrived at Wawa and met Vigil, with their vehicles positioned window to window.

He described Vigil as “extremely angry,” and accused Vigil of pointing an AR-style rifle out of his truck at him.

“I’m a gangster (expletive),” Vigil is quoted as saying. “I’ll (expletive) kill you.”

The man said Vigil’s son was in the truck, and tried to get the rifle away from his father.

The man reportedly tried to record the encounter on his phone but said Vigil knocked the phone from his hand.

The man said he drove off and circled around to get his phone from the ground near the air pumps.

Ultimately, he said Vigil approached again without the rifle. Vigil reportedly “prevented him from leaving by chest-bumping (the man’s) vehicle.”

Vigil and the man got in a physical altercation near the gas pumps. Vigil then is accused of chasing the man into Wawa and yelling before leaving the scene.

Police viewed video surveillance of the incident.

Police reported they couldn’t definitively see a firearm in the video, noting the quality of the footage and distance away made it difficult.

The store manager told investigators it was the third incident involving Vigil at the location.

Police went to Vigil’s home, and he finally came outside after officers used a public address system and made a number of phone calls.

Vigil allowed officers to search his home, and they reported finding an AR-style rifle inside a safe.

Vigil initially denied the allegations.

Parts of the affidavit that appear to contain some of Vigil’s statements with police were redacted.

Vigil was taken to the St. Lucie County Jail, but it couldn’t immediately be determined June 22 whether he’d been released on bond. Attempts to reach the booking desk via phone were unsuccessful.

Will Greenlee is a breaking news reporter for TCPalm. Follow Will on X @OffTheBeatTweet or reach him by phone at 772-267-7926. E-mail him at will.greenlee@tcpalm.com.

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Florida

Get ready Fort Myers Beach. You’re getting a food truck park

Published

11 hours ago

June 22, 2026

Press Room

Get ready Fort Myers Beach. You’re getting a food truck park

Cape Coral has one. So do Fort Myers, Bonita Springs and Naples.

And now it’s Fort Myers Beach’s turn to get its very own food truck park.

Access 26 Family Food Truck Park is expected to open early next year at 2500 Estero Blvd. and Beach Access 26. On June 8, Stevens Construction broke ground on the project, which will highlight five yet-to-be-announced food trucks, all with unique menus.

And there’s more. A bar with covered seating, Manny’s Scoops ice cream and retail area will be featured in a two-story, 3,000 square-foot structure. Storage, office space, restrooms, coolers, a freezer and a dumbwaiter system for beer kegs and supplies will take up the second floor.

A 569-square-foot comfort center with restrooms, storage and three outdoor showers is also planned, along with a curbside table rail, artificial turf play area, three shade canvas structures, guest parking lot and beach access.

And it’s designed with storms and hurricanes in mind — the building’s generator and mechanical equipment will be above flood level, metal flood panels and waterproof walls will help with storm surge and flooding, and the foundation’s design lets water flow through more easily.

Southwest Florida’s expanding food truck scene

Access 26 is the latest food truck park to join Southwest Florida’s growing eatertainment scene. Slipaway Food Truck Park & Marina opened a year ago on July 4 with food trucks, a large covered central bar, live music daily and more in Cape Coral.

Bay Street Yard first brought its vibrant food and entertainment concept to downtown Fort Myers in May 2024, while Backyard Social debuted its food trucks and family-fun daytime and 21-and-up nightlife format in south Fort Myers in October 2023.

Bonita Springs welcomed Rooftop at Riverside’s two-story, two-bar (one on the rooftop) open-air venue with food trucks in January 2024.

Naples’ Celebration Park — a waterfront destination with gourmet food trucks, bar and live music — led the way, opening in November 2018.

Robyn George is a food and dining reporter for The News-Press. Connect at rhgeorge@fortmyer.gannett.com

Please support local community journalism and stay informed about Southwest Florida news by subscribing to The News-Press and Naples Daily News; download the free News-Press or Naples Daily News app, and sign up for daily briefing email newsletter, food & dining and growth & development newsletters here and here.

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Florida

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope arrives in Florida – Spaceflight Now

Published

21 hours ago

June 21, 2026

Press Room

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope arrives in Florida – Spaceflight Now

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, nestled inside its transport container nicknamed ‘the Chariot’, passes by the Vehicle Assembly Building on its way to the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now

NASA’s next great observatory, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, arrived at the Kennedy Space Center aboard the agency’s massive Pegasus barge late Sunday morning.

The spacecraft was nestled inside its protective case, which NASA nicknamed the “Chariot” in keeping with the “Roman” theme. That said, telescope is named not for the ancient empire, but instead for NASA’s first Chief of Astronomy, Nancy Grace Roman.

“She was a key person in our exploration of space. She understood that in order to better understand the universe, you have to go in space,” said Lucas Paganini, the program executive for Roman. “That’s why she’s called the ‘Mother of Hubble’ because she made Hubble possible.”

The 43-foot-tall observatory disembarked from the barge shortly after 7 p.m. EDT (2300 UTC), following a stream of thunderstorms that delayed its departure by about an hour. The spacecraft will travel to the south end of the KSC campus to a building called the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility.

There it will undergo a roughly 70-day prelaunch campaign involving checkouts, fueling, and finally the encapsulation inside the payload fairing of a Falcon Heavy rocket. The observatory is set to launch from Launch Complex 39A no earlier than August 30, moved up from the original September launch date.

“A lot of credit to this great team. They’ve been able to accommodate schedules, to accelerate to be able to launch earlier,” Paganini said. “There’s a lot of things going on at the Cape and of course the team has been amazing.”

This was the second trip to Florida for the Pegasus barge this year after it dropped off the propellant tank section of the core stage for the Artemis 3 Space Launch System rocket back in late April. While the spacecraft arrived safely, Neil Patel, the Roman mechanical engineer who traveled with the observatory, said it wasn’t entirely smooth sailing after leaving from Massachusetts.

“We do have a tight temperature tolerance on the observatory. We need to stay below 74 degrees. We have two cooling units: we had a primary and a redundant unit and they just weren’t getting the job done down here, so we had to make a stop, add additional rental units,” Patel said.

“Again, it was an amazing effort to have a team come down on an emergency basis. Basically, a MacGyver crew came in and we added additional units and those units did maintain the temperature quite well.”

Roman is designed to operate near a fixed point in space called Lagrange Point 2, about 1.5 million km away from the Earth on the side opposite the Sun. It’s designed to operate there for a minimum of five years, but Paganini said with the propellant onboard, it will likely last for 10 years or more.

The telescope is+ equipped with a 300 megapixel camera called the Wide Field Instrument, which features 18 detectors. It was developed by BAE Systems (formerly Ball Aerospace).

“It’s going to allow us to observe at least 100 times wider field of view than what we can do with Hubble. Same resolution, but a wider area, 1000 times faster,” Paganini said. “So what takes Roman a year to observe, it would take Hubble thousands of years. So it’s definitely much more efficient.”

Artist’s illustration of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

The observatory also features a chronograph instrument, developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which will allow Roman to observe the faint light of exoplanets near their stars.

Paganini said Roman will also help scientists better understand dark matter and dark energy, the combination of which he calls the “dark universe”.

“100 years ago, we discovered that the universe was expanding. 25 years ago, we discovered that it was expanding at an accelerated pace and that’s what led to a Nobel Prize,” Paganini said. “What we don’t quite know yet is if that acceleration is changing in ways. We don’t know if it’s actually dark energy, what is producing it, or is it simply that we don’t understand gravity at all.

“So eventually, we’ll see if the laws of physics that we use these days are the right ones for what we are observing. But at the end is, we’re trying to understand a very human question, which is where do we come from and where are wea heading in this universe that is our neighborhood?”

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