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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MARTIN COUNTY — A nude man covered in feces broke into someone’s backyard and jumped into the pool Saturday, according to a Martin County Sheriff’s Office report.

Robert Stark Higgins, 21, of the 5300 block of Southeast Dell Street, Stuart, was charged with burglary to an occupied dwelling, disorderly conduct and misdemeanor theft. He was being held at the Martin County Jail in lieu of $10,500 bail.
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STUART — Paul Crandall drove through downtown Stuart in his parking enforcement car on his last Friday on the job and recalled some of his most memorable cases.

There was the time a patron at The Ashley threatened to shoot Crandall when he gave him a ticket for parking left side-to-curb on a two-way street.

There was the time he ticketed a pickup truck parked on the sidewalk with its rear end jutting into the middle of South Colorado Avenue.

And there was the time an employee at a downtown business on Southwest Flagler Avenue told him she violated the area’s three-hour parking restriction because she didn’t want to park across Southwest Dixie Highway and walk across the train tracks to her job in high heels.
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FORT PIERCE — After hugging friends and family as a panel was removed from the front door, Neha Patel nervously walked into A & M Discount Beverages at 9 a.m. Tuesday morning and took her place behind the counter, the same place where her husband, Parag C. Patel, was killed during a Sept. 4 armed robbery.

But the counter in the reopened store now is topped with thick, bullet-proof glass, one of the safety measures the Patel family installed at the suggestion of Fort Pierce police.

“I’m a little nervous,” Neha Patel said from behind the glass. “But I feel safe. There, for a while, I didn’t think I was going to make it; but I got so much support from my friends and family and customers that I decided to reopen the store.”
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PORT ST. LUCIE — A man and a woman went to the hospital after their car struck a tree Monday night, the St. Lucie County Fire District reported Tuesday.

Fire District crews were called about 9:10 p.m. to the incident in the 2200 block of Southeast Midport Road.

The driver, a woman in her early 20s, was taken to a local provisional trauma center in serious but stable condition,
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STUART — Police said they took a man into custody Wednesday after he bought a stolen iPhone and tried returning it to its owner.

Johnny Harris, 29, of the 7700 block of Southeast Kingsway Street, Hobe Sound, was charged with dealing in stolen property. He was being held at the Martin County Jail in lieu of $10,000 bail.

Stuart police said a house burglary happened Monday in which the intruders took the iPhone, according to the arrest affidavit. Harris told police he ran into someone Tuesday night who sold it to him for $175, the affidavit said.

The owner of the iPhone contacted Harris, who agreed to a rendezvous in the 2300 block of South Federal Highway to return the device. When Harris arrived, officers took him into custody. Police said in the affidavit that Harris should have known the phone was stolen.
TCPalm.com

FORT PIERCE — A trauma surgeon and nurse on their way to work at Lawnwood Regional Medical Center & Heart Institute on Saturday became first responders at an accident scene.

Dr. Alex Funicello, who was returning from a Hutchinson Island condo to finish rounds at Lawnwood, found the base of South Bridge blocked with police cars and accident tape.

Raymond Chew, 47, lay in the intersection of Seaway and Indian River drives, his motorcycle nearby and his helmet loose but still on. No emergency medical crews had arrived when Funicello arrived.

So, the trauma surgeon went to work, assessing the patient.
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SEBASTIAN — Police investigators said they uncovered a criminal enterprise involving ill-gotten prescription drugs, out-of-state pill smuggling and stolen auto parts when they searched a home last weekend.

Investigators spent 30 hours searching an undisclosed home late Friday and most of Saturday, said Sebastian Officer Steve Marcinik, police spokesman. Eight investigators recovered more than 3,000 pills with a street value of $60,000, as well as $6,500 worth of stolen property and $4,500 cash, investigators said.

“This shows a direct link between theft and the illegal prescription drug business,” Marcinik said.
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PORT ST. LUCIE — The International Union of Police Associations, which represents the city’s police officers, put a sign on a billboard Sunday at U.S. 1 and Jennings Road to protest the city sending layoff notices to eight police officers.

The notices advised the officers their last day of employment would be Sept. 30.

One side of the billboard reads, “Welcome to Port St. Lucie! Violent crime is up 14.4 percent! Feel safe???”

The other side breaks down what the city spent on the civic center and plans to spend to bring a private digital production studio to the city. It also cites a figure, $1.5 million, as the annual upkeep of the botanical garden project.
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