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Florida Man Tries To Hitch Ride To Hooters In Police Car, Goes To Jail Instead

Ingenuity is not always appreciated, and it may not be a good idea in every situation. A 28-year-old Florida man learned that attempting to hail a ride with emergency services can lead you to jail.
 Hooters restaurant, Route One, Saugus, Massachusetts. Night view. 1 photo
Photo: Wikipedia user Anthony92931 - licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license
Unlike us, he did not read about it, but experienced the entire thing first hand, in the back of a police car. It happened in Merritt Island, Florida, and it began with a 911 call that was bogus.

He told the operator of the emergency services line that his grandmother had suffered a stroke in the parking lot of a Hooters restaurant, and that he needed to get a ride there as soon as possible.

Most likely, he thought that he could get a cop car to pick him up and take him to the establishment for free, but the Florida man even told the operator on the line that he could pay for the ride.

Instead, emergency responders went to the said restaurant and did not find his relative. However, his granny was found somewhere else, and she told those who discovered her that she did not have a stroke, and that she hadn't asked for anyone’s help.

The search misused three hours of valuable time, because every moment of a day is critical for emergency services, so the authorities went after Jonathan Hinkle, who had originally made the call. He was arrested for misusing 911, and was taken to the Brevard County Jail.

As US News notes, he was then released on bond, and no attorney is listed for him according to public records. He will probably have to pay the penalty for wasting taxpayer money after making a false call to 911.

It is unclear why he did not call a cab for the entire task, since he offered to pay the emergency responders whom he wanted to drive him to Hooters.

Regardless, we can hope that his “experience” will show others what the legal consequences of making a call like this are, and what lying to the authorities about an emergency can do to a person.
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About the author: Sebastian Toma
Sebastian Toma profile photo

Sebastian's love for cars began at a young age. Little did he know that a career would emerge from this passion (and that it would not, sadly, involve being a professional racecar driver). In over fourteen years, he got behind the wheel of several hundred vehicles and in the offices of the most important car publications in his homeland.
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