MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Getting in three car wrecks over a span of three months, including crashes on back-to-back days, would be considered exceptionally bad luck for most people.
Police said a 29-year-old woman claimed she got in that many car crashes, but investigators didn’t chalk it up to mere bad luck: they said it was fraud.
Rosmery Nunez is accused of filing more than $52,000 worth of insurance claims for a series of 2022 crashes that either never happened or were staged or otherwise suspicious.
Nunez, who’s listed in an arrest warrant as having addresses in Palm Beach County and North Bay Village, faces seven felony counts in the case. Those charges include grand theft, filing false insurance claims, organized scheme to defraud and staging an accident.
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Florida’s Bureau of Insurance Fraud investigated the case.
Crash #1
Police already made one arrest in the first alleged crash, an apparent phantom hit-and-run involving alleged co-conspirators Lazaro Yosvel Pacheco and Jose Froilan Lopez Ramirez.
They said Nunez, alongside Pacheco, 33, and Lopez Ramirez, 50, claimed they were in a crash near Sweetwater on July 27.
According to the warrant, Nunez never filed a police report on the purported crash involving her grey Toyota Corolla, but the three did file insurance claims for therapy.
Police said Pacheco and Nunez’s stories didn’t match up. They arrested Pacheco Friday morning, while Lopez Ramirez was listed as being at large; Nunez was also considered at large at the time.
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Lazaro Yosvel Pacheco (MDCR)
Crash #2
The very next day, Lopez Ramirez was driving Nunez’s Corolla, with Nunez in the passenger’s seat, when a man hit them while he changed lanes along West 84th Street in Hialeah.
Authorities listed the other driver as a witness rather than a co-defendant.
Nunez and Lopez Ramirez filed medical claims after the crash.
Crash #3
Nunez later claimed to have been in a crash during the late-night hours of Oct. 3 at the intersection of Southwest Eighth Avenue and Ninth Street in Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood, the warrant states.
She said she was driving a brown Cadillac SRX with Yasiel Moya Leon and “accidentally dropped her cellular phone on the floorboard” while approaching a stop sign and rear-ended Jaquimi Leon while reaching for the phone.
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Police, however, were suspicious. They said everyone acted as if they didn’t know each other and Moya Leon didn’t provide police his second last name, simply identifying himself as “Yasiel Moya.”
According to the warrant, there may be a good reason he didn’t: Jaquimi Leon happened to be his aunt.
Moya Leon claimed that he and Nunez were following his aunt to the grocery store when the crash happened, but police were suspicious that they would be doing such a thing so late at night, the warrant says.
Jaquimi Leon said the two were following her to help her with grocery bags, police said. Both she and her nephew are co-defendants in the case; it’s not clear if they’ve already been arrested or are at large.
Police said Nunez filed medical claims after the crash.
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Copyright 2023 by WPLG Local10.com – All rights reserved.
MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Police arrested a 43-year-old man after accusing him of masturbating in front of three teenage girls on a Miami-Dade Metrobus on Tuesday afternoon.
According to an arrest report, Edwin Tyrone Lee looked at the girls as he exposed himself and masturbated on the bus at around 1 p.m. as it traveled near Southwest 112th Avenue and 248th Street in the county’s Princeton area.
Miami-Dade police said the girls, two of whom were 14 and the other 16, notified the driver, who called police.
Authorities said officers took Lee, who is homeless, into custody; he invoked his right to an attorney.
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Lee, facing two counts of lewd and lascivious exhibition on a child and one count of indecent exposure, was being held in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a $15,000 bond, jail records show.
Copyright 2024 by WPLG Local10.com – All rights reserved.
SOUTHWEST MIAMI-DADE, FLA. (WSVN) – Miami-Dade Fire Rescue crews were called in to assist zoo keepers at Zoo Miami on Tuesday to help keep the elephants cool amid rising temperatures.
Photos of the enrichment activity on the department’s social media accounts showed the elephants enjoying the attention and playing happily while being hosed off.
According to an Instagram post, the crew from Miami-Dade Fire Rescue’s Engine 57 participated in Zoo Miami’s annual elephant hose enrichment activity.
This event allows the community to observe as firefighters provide unique heat relief to the elephants in the Asian Elephant habitat, helping to lower their body temperatures. The post expressed gratitude to Zoo Miami for the opportunity to bring enrichment to the animals.
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A similar message was shared on X, formerly known as Twitter, highlighting the collaboration between Miami-Dade Fire Rescue and Zoo Miami to ensure the well-being of the elephants during the hot summer days.
Today, #MDFR‘s Engine 57 participated in @zoomiami‘s annual elephant hose enrichment activity. This special event allows our community to join in as firefighters offer unique heat relief to the elephants in the Asian Elephant habitat, helping to lower their body temperatures. pic.twitter.com/M6dvBGJcck
— Miami-Dade Fire Rescue (@MiamiDadeFire) July 2, 2024
Copyright 2024 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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MIAMI – For the first time in 14 years the City of Miami could be increasing a service that many homeowners have considered effective.
“I think it’s excellent, they’re always here,” said Sally Howie about the trash service in Miami, where she has lived since 2005.
In June, Miami commissioners voted 4 to 1 in favor of increasing the cap on garbage fees from $380 to a $60 increase for a total of $440.
“I think it’s a reasonable request because it’s been 14 years, so it seems reasonable to me,” said Howie.
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“I voted against it,” said Manolo Reyes, Miami Commissioner for District 4, who opposed the measure, among other things because of people on fixed incomes.
“For those people, those households an increase of 60 dollars means a lot for them,” said Reyes.
“I can understand if someone has a fixed income and bills increase, they’re not going to like it,” said Howie, who lives in Coconut Grove.
Damian Pardo, recently elected as Miami Commissioner voted in favor of increasing the cap.
“Unlike any other municipality, we’re paying a much lower fee,” said the commissioner for District 2. Homeowners in Unincorporated Miami-Dade pay $547 a year.
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Pardo says the garbage fee in Miami not only applies to trash collection but also to recycling service and what is known as bulky trash – piled garbage from debris, branches, or when people remodel their houses.
“They’re getting bulky trash pick-up every single week unlike any other municipality,” said Pardo.
CBS Miami reached out to the City of Miami for a request for an interview, they replied with a statement saying:
“The level of (trash) service provided exceeds what we currently charge, thus the consideration of increasing the fee to $440 per household.”
“The difference between the actual cost of service and what is charged to households is being offset by General Fund money. The possible increase would reduce the reliance on general fund dollars to support the delivery of solid waste residential services.”
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CBS News Miami asked Commissioner Reyes, “How soon Miami residents would actually see an increase on the garbage fee?”
“It’s up to the administration,” he replied.
Pardo replied differently, “The cap doesn’t mean there’s any increase at all, it just provides flexibility in the future should residents decide that they want an increase as opposed to losing services.”
Both commissioners said there should be another meeting if the city does decide to increase the fee any time soon.
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