STUART — Investigators said they are trying to learn more about a homeless man killed in a car crash last month.

Thomas Patrick Collins, 67, was killed while on foot in the Dec. 18 traffic accident in the 700 block of South Federal Highway, police said.

Detectives have been unable to locate any of Collins’ relatives. Anyone with information about Collins should contact Detective Derek Ortado at (772) 220-3906.

By Lamaur Stancil

VERO BEACH — Police say a homeless man did some Christmas bah-humbugging in the buff.

Early Tuesday morning, a security camera at the Carvel ice cream shop near Indian River Boulevard recorded a naked man ripping store Christmas decorations, causing less than $50 in damage including heaving plant pots into a parking lot. (more…)

PHILADELPHIA, PA — A school counselor suffering an apparent heart attack died in a Philadelphia emergency room after waiting nearly 80 minutes for help — and a trio of homeless drug addicts nearby stole his watch instead of seeking aid, police said.

Joaquin Rivera, 63, died before seeing a triage nurse at Atria Health’s Frankford Campus over the weekend, police said.

Rivera, a musician and activist in the city’s Latino community, had spent more than 30 years working as a bilingual counselor at an inner-city high school.
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STUART — Two Riviera Beach City Police Department detectives were honored Friday by the Martin County Veterans Council for making certain a homeless, 61-year-old Vietnam veteran received a proper military funeral.

Other than the military honor detail and cemetery employees, the detectives were the only people at the service.

“He died alone, but he had served his country. We just didn’t want him to go to an anonymous grave,” said Detective Jeremy Summers, who came to Stuart to VFW Post 4194 Friday to receive the official thanks. The other detective, Sgt. Patrick Galligan, was unable to come because of a family matter.

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VERO BEACH — New Orleans resident Lionel Sims broke a hole in his roof to be rescued from Hurricane Katrina’s devastating flood waters in August 2005, but he had to leave behind a best friend, his dog Peanut.

Rescuers said they couldn’t take the dog.

Sims didn’t know if Peanut was dead or alive for about two months, until an American Red Cross volunteer tracked it to the Humane Society of Indian River County and Vero Beach.

And the two were reunited.
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PORT SALERNO — Ann Gunsolus can’t bear the thought of losing her home, even though it’s a makeshift campsite in a privately owned woods a stone’s throw from U.S. 1.

“Cry: That’s what I do so far is cry,” Gunsolus said, while thinking about where she will go when the authorities evict the homeless people from the woods. “When you have nothing, there’s not much you can do.”

Gunsolus and more than a dozen other homeless men and women fear sheriff’s deputies will roust them as soon as Thursday from the patchwork of tents and tarps they call home. (more…)

Danny Ford

The dog’s owner told Martin County Sheriff’s deputies that he saw Danny K. Ford in his yard in the 8400 block of Southeast Eucalyptus Way where he was stabbing the homeowner’s pit bull in the eyes.

The homeowner said Ford, 48, was known as a local in the Banner Lake area. When he saw Ford with the rebar shortly before 6:30 p.m. on Friday, he rushed into his yard.

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