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Tampa Bay's 25 most WTF news stories of 2023

By CL Staff on Thu, Dec 21, 2023 at 1:50 pm

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Image via Colin Wolf

If Tampa Bay had a bingo card for 2023, would you have gotten any of these correct?

For example, in just the last 12 months, a bear got kicked out of TPA, Busch Gardens installed an influencer-proof fence around a gator cage, a local politico with ties to the mayor turned out to be secret sex offender, and a local pastor who hangs out with Alex Jones and tells his followers that chemtrails are used to destroy the crops got a commendation from Hillsborough County commissioners.

Yes, 2023 was one of the weirdest yet. Here are a few of the more notable moments from our biggest, dumbest year yet.

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After a man attempted to go viral by jumping into Busch Gardens' American Alligator exhibit, the park installed a much taller fence that will certainly keep the influencers out. Read the full story here.

Last August, Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister took to social media to remind residents that it's actually a terrible idea to swim in the rising storm surge of Hurricane Idalia. "Please stay sheltered and off the roadways, and definitely stay out of the water, it’s dangerous!" wrote Chronsiter, while sharing a photo of some maniac seemingly swimming laps in a brown turd-like stream. Read the full story here.

Last summer, the City of Tampa said there was an uptick in "hot loads," which is when trash spontaneously combusts inside a garbage truck, and now officials are looking to educate residents on how to properly dispose of their hazardous waste. The culprit? Overheating lithium-ion batteries, chemicals, cleaning solutions, propane tanks or other electronics improperly disposed of in bins, says the City of Tampa. Read the full story here.

Manatee mating season typically runs from March to November in Florida, and local law enforcement is reminding residents that there's absolutely no reason to call the cops if you spot a seacow orgy. On Saturday, July 29, the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office (PCSO) posted a video to social media showing what's often referred to as a manatee "mating ball," or a "mating herd." "If you see this...Don't call us," said PCSO. "They are more than fine. It's manatee mating season." Read the full story here.

Super Bowl Lenny had a close call last summer, after the former Buccaneer's car caught fire. "Man it was one of those days today, but I would like thank God, my car caught on fire while I was driving, But I’am still blessed," wrote Fournette on Instagram. Read the full story here.

Last May, a Tampa pastor with a well-documented history of spreading dangerous conspiracy theories— like mass shootings are false flags and the COVID-19 pandemic was planned by Bill Gates—was awarded a commendation by the Hillsborough County Board of Commissioners for his community service. Read the full story here.

A decent-sized alligator was detained last spring and relocated for trespassing at a Tampa Bay Publix. "We can only speculate that he was on his way to pick up a PubSub," said the police department said in a Facebook post. An officer with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission also responded to the call and helped relocate it to a nearby body of water. Read the full story here.

Adding to a long list of invasive species that already includes clawed frogs, house-eating meningitis snails, and giant poisonous toads, Tampa Bay is now home to an air-breathing Asian fish. For the first time on record, researchers have located a population of non-native aggressive, air-breathing fish known as the goldline snakehead (Channa aurolineata) in a Manatee County pond. Read the full story here.

New Port Richey Police Department saw several big scandals over the past two-and-a-half years, but last January the police chief decided to leave the department. As Creative Loafing Tampa Bay previously reported, NPRPD cops have prayed with Proud Boys, posed in front of a Confederate flag, leaked department intel to an armed right-wing vigilante and falsely accused a Black man of a felony, among other incidents. Read the full story here.

A popular swimming area at a Central Florida freshwater spring closed last summer after a man was bitten by an alligator while snorkeling. According to the U.S. Forest Service, (USFS) the incident occured at the Alexander Springs Recreation Area in the Ocala National Forest. Officials say the man was snorkeling when a 7-foot alligator bit him, which resulted in puncture wounds and lacerations. Read the full story here.

Last August, Florida's Department of Education announced the approval of “supplemental teaching materials" from PragerU, an unaccredited, far-right institution with a history of "downplaying systemic racism and promoting anti-immigrant theories." Read the full story here.

Tampa International Airport said it removed a Florida black bear from the airport campus last summer, adding that it has no previous records of bear incursions on airport property. A TSA employee spotted the bear walking along the airport perimeter fence near Hillsborough Avenue, according to airport officials. The sighting was reported to Hillsborough County Aviation Authority. Read the full story here.

“It’s the buses and who they’re bringing in,” Chris Marone, St. Pete Beach City Commissioner, said at an Aug. 8 meeting. “And the Sheriff [Bob Gualtieri] said we cannot just pick these people up and drive them somewhere and drop them off. We're not allowed to do that. We can make their lives miserable.” Read the full story here.

In a report released last spring by lawn care company TruGreen, Tampa Bay was ranked as one of the top five cities nationwide most impacted by outdoor pests—specifically mosquitos, fleas and ticks. The study places the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Sarasota region at No. 5 out of the country's 20 largest metros. Read the full story here.

Dr. Joseph Dituri, known to his students and colleagues as Dr. Deep Sea, broke the world record for underwater living last spring. The previous record, held by Tennessee teachers Bruce Cantrell and Jessica Fain, was set in 2014 at 73 days. Read the full story here.

Last August, under pressure to comply with House Bill 1417’s repeal of all local tenant ordinances, St. Pete’s hard-won Tenant Bill of Rights was officially no more, following a 5-1 vote at city council. Read the full story here.

After 35 years as an investigative reporter for Tampa's Channel 10, Mike Deeson knows editing when he hears it. He also knows when an edit has changed the meaning of someone’s words. That’s exactly what Deeson says happened to his comments about antisemitism after he appeared on a recent episode of the University of South Florida’s “Advocation: Change it Up!” podcast. The longtime local journalist, who has won 12 Emmys, told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay that his comments on the show were extensively censored. Read the full story here.

Overall, Florida judges denied one in eight petitions across Florida in 2021. In a county-by-county breakdown, Hillsborough had the highest percentage of denials at 52%. Out of 21 petitions, Hillsborough denied 11. Read the full story here.

The graphic is about hurricane force winds. And while it’s very likely that Times Data Editor Langston Taylor was just trying to do his job as the storm set its sights on Florida’s west central coast, Instagram commenters were also doing theirs, with @floridaman saying, “I should call her,” and @missjulieann adding “Idalia Majora” to the conversation. Read the full story here.

Using data from April, Florida Atlantic University’s College of Business created an interactive rental index that ranks the “most overvalued rental markets from among the nation’s largest metropolitan areas.” The index found that a Tampa renter that makes $84,750.12 a year is actually rent burdened. Someone who makes $50,850.07 is classified as severely rent burdened. Read the full story here.