Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in the county.
Fantasy Fest and Halloween is a busy time in the county.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “This is kind of all hands on deck for Fantasy Fest. We want to help aid and assist our friends at Key West police. So we’ll have officers there throughout the holiday week at various events and at Fantasy Fest night itself, we’ll have a lot of officers out there helping the city make sure it’s safe, traffic control, safety, security, keeping the parade route open, clear. I’ll be down myself Saturday night, as I usually lead the parade with the chief to walk in front throughout the whole entire parade of route. It’s a long night for sure, walking, but a good chance to do our community policing at the same time. Wave, shake hands, high five the locals, the kids, and continue to build those relationships. But we’ll be busy then during trick or treating. We’ll be heavier force in those areas. There some neighborhoods may even have a traffic diversion or changes, like behind the airport or like in Islamorada, some of those areas there, we will have to make those neighborhoods a little bit safer, restrict the flow of traffic and limit cars from coming in and out, because there’s so many kids on the roads. This is a fun time of year, too, see all the kids in their costumes and excited and having a good time and little community parties and get togethers. So I like this time of year, little cooler weather, a lot of good festivity, good atmosphere. So we’re excited, but definitely it’s a busy time for the law enforcement community in the Keys.”
An Islamorada man was arrested for speeding and fleeing from the sheriff’s office on US 1 and a DUI, the fourth or subsequent offense, possession of marijuana, driving with a suspended license after midnight recently.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “I always tell you and your listeners, not too much good happens after midnight. This is a prime example. We clocked this guy who’s got no driver’s license, he’s been arrested three times prior for drunk driving. He’s got a marijuana THC pens in the car, open alcohol, and he’s doing 72 miles an hour in a 45 mile an hour zone. So we always think, how stupid is it that people draw attention to themselves when they know that they shouldn’t be behind the wheel. So we clock him at 72 on radar. We then try to stop him. He accelerates and a pursuit takes off, speeds get up to about 90 miles an hour. At some point in time, he pulls off into a side access road, before eventually coming to a stop. We do encounter him then. He’s under the influence of alcohol, we see open alcohol in the vehicle, the THC cartridge pen, clear signs of impairment, no driver’s license. As you know, it’s been suspended multiple times for DUI related, alcohol related offenses. Ultimately, we do arrest him again for his fourth DUI and no driver’s license, tow his vehicle, get him off the road before he can kill somebody. These people are going to kill somebody or themselves or both. You’re driving a truck down the road, that’s a 5,000 pound missile, speeding. It’s sad to see someone like this who just does not get it. Cannot comprehend that he’s unable to balance alcohol and driving, and when the two get mixed, it creates a deadly formula. So our men and women are out there trying to get these type of people off the road before something tragic happens, and this person is going to be heading off to jail, I’m sure, a fourth time offender who the courts are going to see clearly does not get it and refuses to comply with all orders from the courts and continues to be an adverse risk to the public safety at large.”
A woman from Key West was arrested earlier this year who was posing as a travel agent, promising trips to Cuba. They were being canceled. She never refunded the money. More people have come out since her arrest.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “This was alleged to be a travel agency to take trips to Cuba and organize trips, go with you and bring you around. They were arrested earlier for doing this where they’re collecting the money, but then last minute, canceling the trip and not returning the money. So they had two different travel agencies and two different names, a fishing charter business that they would do charters as well, but not provide the services. We had made arrests in the past. More victims had come forward. We continue to reinvestigate these cases and determine that, yes, they did put out services. People paid for services, never received those services and never received a refund and got ghosted by these people. So this appears to be a fraudulent scam, fake travel agency. We know if there’s one victim, there’s generally multiple victims, so there’s more out there as well. But we have to keep these people accountable who are taking hard working money from people who work their entire year for that one trip go on vacation with their family and loved ones, only to be scammed out of it. The once in a lifetime trip to go to Cuba, in this case here, many want to travel to that country and see what it’s all about. To lose all your money. So sad to see breaking people’s hearts and dreams of an epic trip. But we’re going to be vigilant. Hold these people accountable, deter people from doing it and hold people accountable if they do it.”
Someone has been charged with stealing thousands of dollars in cash, two handguns from a boat in Boot Key Harbor in Marathon last year.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “This is an ongoing investigation from last year that’s taken some time. Three defendants, two have already been arrested, able to get probable cause and arrest a third person who went on board a live aboard in the Book Key Harbor and committed a burglary and Grand Theft, stole about $4,200 worth of cash and two guns, none of which is a good thing, but stolen guns is the biggest concern we have for public safety. So my detectives were diligent on this case, continue to be investigating and trying to get the bottom of it. So we did make the third and final arrest on this case and get some accountability to hold these people accountable for these crimes. You live on a boat, these people are struggling to make ends meet just to survive on a boat, living on a boat, and you take probably every bit of cash they have off that boat. It’s just sad to see these type of cases take place. These cases that occur on the liveaboard is a little more difficult, generally, than most burglaries you may experience in the neighborhood, less ability to have cameras, less ability to canvas neighborhoods, less ability to potentially have witnesses. So these are challenging cases, for sure.”
Another fraud scheme was uncovered where Miamia Dade County dump truck drivers have been charged. One of them has been arrested for failing to deliver multiple, 22 ton loads of crushed limestone worth thousands of dollars to a construction project at the Florida Keys Marathon International Airport.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “As of today, we actually got the second person arrested. So we’ve so far arrested two. That case is a continuing ongoing investigation. It is not over. Very difficult, challenging case. We had brought to our attention by the Toppino company believing that they were having loads stolen. And we’re talking about thousands of trucks that are coming to the airport, and these loads are very expensive, and when they come in, the dirt is loaded at True Haul in Dade County by independent drivers, and they get a load ticket, and they’ve got to drive down, and then they’ve got to turn the ticket in to the job site when they come in. Well, the Toppino family were getting billed for all these loads, but there wasn’t enough tickets versus loads that were being allegedly hauled down, delivered versus actual delivered. So a difficult, challenging case, because it’s a lot of circumstantial case, you’ve got to put the pieces of the puzzle together. We had to do a lot to get records from SunPass, we had to get records from weigh stations, records from law enforcement. We had to get records from cell phone towers. We had to build a case to show that these loads were picked up at True Haul. The trucks were loaded. They were given a ticket. But yet the ticket never showed up at the job site, then we have to go back to show that they never left Dade and they never entered Monroe. What happens is they get a load, and they’re paid to bring the load down. Well, what they’re doing is getting load, getting paid to deliver a load, never delivering the load, and they’re saving on tolls, fuel, having to go through weigh stations, and then presumably, they’re selling the load up there to some other contractor that they’re in business with. So we’re talking about, just thousands of loads of trucks coming in. Not an easy case, for sure, but so far, we’ve got two guys that have had multiple times. They’re the ones no trip tickets, keep coming up short, and we’re able to show each time that they never left Dade County. They never came into Monroe. So this is big money. You’re talking about these truckloads after truckloads of stolen fill, that our victim is continuing to be victimized. So we’ve been working on this case. We’re going to continue to work and investigate this case. We think it’s wider spread, just the ability is difficult when all our suspects live in Miami Dade County, and we have to build this circumstantial case, which has done a really good job on these two players, for sure, but very manpower intensive. I’ve had detectives working this case for a while, and we’re going to continue to go through records and investigation and see if we can make these cases even stronger and hopefully identify other potential suspects in this case. But a challenging case.”
We had graduates of the Basic Law Enforcement Academy from the sheriff’s office and Key West police recently.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “We did a joint police academy together, and we want to thank our friends at the College of Florida Keys for putting it on. They’re a great partner to us. Key West police had nine new officers graduate on Friday night. Sheriff’s office had seven new officers graduate on Friday night, so 16 officers will be starting their careers here in Monroe County. Myself and Chief Brandenberg, both were speakers at the academy of graduation. The chief did the opening, I did the closing. We said some remarks about our experiences and what we’re looking for in law enforcement. Me and the chief are always on the same sheet of music. He’s a good friend, good partner, and I appreciate the ability to keep working so close with Key West Police and our community. But congratulations to these officers starting out their careers. I can remember myself almost 40 years ago on that same stage, graduating. So it’s an exciting day that was graduating class BLE 93. My basic law enforcement class was BLE 11. So it made me kind of feel old. There’s been 82 classes graduate since I graduated. So I was like, holy smokes, I’ve been around for a while.”