One Florida man’s romantic gesture gloriously backfired when police arrested him for an environmental crime.
MSN reports that 40-year-old Anthony Brasfield was trying to romance his sweetheart Shaquina Baxter on Sunday morning by releasing a dozen heart-shaped balloons into the sky over Dania Beach.
In the parking lot of a Motel 6, Brasfield and Baxter watched as the shiny red and silver balloons gently floated away, carried by the breeze and reaffirming the couple’s tender love for each other.
You know how they say that three’s a crowd? A Florida Highway Patrol trooper was watching as well, but didn’t see the romance in the scene. Instead, the FHP officer saw probable cause for an environmental crime.
Brasfield was arrested and charged with polluting to harm humans, animals, plants, etc. under the Florida Air and Water Pollution Control Act, reports the Sun-Sentinel .
Apparently, endangered marine turtle species and birds like wood storks and brown pelicans live in John U. Lloyd State Park about 1.5 miles east of the motel, but the report didn’t indicate why the balloons are problematic or harmful to them.
Between 2008 and 2012, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said that there were 21 arrests all over the state related to the rarely used environmental protections statute.
Unfortunately for Brasfield, his unwitting felony could earn him five years in prison.
What do you think of the story? Should Brasfield be punished so strictly for his romantic gesture, or should environmental protection laws be taken seriously in every case?