May 5 – Florida Man Electrocuted After Using Metal Rod to Rescue His Pet Bird from Power Lines

There’s something sweet about the love for pets. However, sometimes sweet turns sad when an owner risks their life for the sake of his loyal animal friends. In a tragic incident, a Florida man lost his life trying to rescue one of his pigeons from a power line.

36-year-old Elian Garcia Rivers had been busy in his backyard on that day when he looked up and saw one of his pigeons on a power line. Probably scared for it, the man might have looked for anything he could find to help the pigeon out of danger. Unfortunately, he got a 20-foot metal rod and to his own peril, the metal rod transferred the electric current down and electrocuted him.

As a bird owner, Garcia should have known that birds cannot be electrocuted by power lines for simply sitting or standing on them. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology explains this by stating they can sit on power lines without attracting a shock because they are not grounded. As such, they cannot facilitate the flow of electricity through them.

In a similar scenario, a South Florida man was electrocuted while trying to reach for a parrot’s nest near a power line running above. The Coral Springs Fire Rescue that came to the man’s aid said he was using a landscaping tool to reach the nest when he hit a 400,000-volt high-tension power line. While it’s not clear why the man was reaching for his birds’ nest, he sustained second and third-degree burns on half of his body, per a report by deputy fire chief Mike Moser.

The parrots the victim was reaching for are quarker parrots which are reportedly social birds sought by many people for profit. And while this might not have been the man’s intention, it’s a “grim reminder of getting too close to a power line,” said Moser.

See Also:

• Florida Man Report – May 4
• Florida Man Headlines – May 3
• Florida Man News – May 2

May 5 – Florida Man Charged After Calling Cops Over a Paid-Sex Scam

A Florida man learned that not everything has to be talked about even when hookwinked by criminals. The man, who must have been so frustrated losing hundreds of dollars, couldn’t help but call the cops on his supposed scammers until he found his hands in cuffs.

50-year-old Jon Sengul went ranting to the West Palm Beach Police about his loss in a paid sex deal. He had paid the vendors of the so-called activity who turned their backs on him and failed to deliver the service. The man had reportedly paid four people $500 so that at least one of them could go over to his hotel for sexual relations. However, none of them showed up, and neither did he get his money back.

The cops, however, asked him if he was going to solicit another person for sex to which he unsuspectingly said yes. That’s how Sengul ended up in cuffs, facing one count of soliciting a prostitute.

Sengul, who was said to be homeless, found a way to bond out of jail a few days after his arrest by placing $500. However, it’s not clear if the police went ahead to investigate his complaints about the sex scammers and whether he was able to recover the lost amount.

In another incident dubbed “romance scam,” a Florida woman was incarcerated after stealing $2.8 million from a Holocaust survivor. The woman rused the 88-year-old Holocaust survivor for way too long until 2021 when the truth began to unfold. The cops caught up with the 36-year-old, after which she was sentenced and pleaded guilty to wire fraud. Peaches Stergo reportedly met the 88-year-old through an online dating app and gained the trust of the lonely elderly man.

But before long, she seized the man’s money after deceiving him she would return it upon receiving money from an injury settlement. The victim fell for the ruse and wrote 62 checks for his so-called lover before being ghosted. Sergo ripped the man of all his wealth including his apartment, before buying herself a home, luxury cars, a boat, and posh vacations, among others.