Officers with Florida Fish and Wildlife were on patrol when they spotted a dive flag on the surface of the water. As they approached, they asked the diver what was in the bag attached to his dive flag. He said he did not catch anything and it was empty. The officer asked him to retrieve the bag and he responded by diving down. While underwater, the officer saw a large flash of color and a dead red grouper floated to the surface. I don't care about your spear gun. Stay right there. You got it? You got it? This is about as close as you can get for me. >> I can scoop the ass in. I'm trying, man. >> [snorts] >> All right, come here. Why'd you do that? It's an illegal fish. Why'd you drop it? It's an illegal fish. >> Why'd you dump it? I wasn't 100% sure if it was legal or not. But when I'm sitting here watching you and I see something come out and I ask you, "What did you just drop?" Oh, nothing. I wasn't 100% sure if it was legal. But if I asked you, did you have any fish and you said no? You want to get this the swim ladder on the other side and get him on the board? Yeah. Yeah. Man, I just lost my spear I guess you're not worried about it. Can I look for my spear gun? Yeah, if you want to look for it, go for it. I'm writing interference. Yeah, 88 Sierra. Yeah. It's going to be just outside of Port Everglades Inlet, about a quarter mile north of the channel. All right, swim over here. You got it locked in? Yep. All right. It's shot. Yeah, I know it was his. He just admitted he dropped it, too. Was it undersized, too, or just out of season? Tell you right now. Cuz I'm going to start paperwork. Wonder? You want to help me out there? Yep. Yes, sir. Hand me your gear. I couldn't find it. All right. Hand me that fin. Hand me your line. Hold on, before you come on, hold on, 1 second. Yeah, I have a blade on my leg. Okay. Man, I lost my spear gun. Oh, hopefully we can go back and find it. Come on. Yep. Hold on. Hold Oh. Hold that for a second. All right. Can you do me a favor, face that way? All right. What's uh what's your name and date of birth? Uh Christopher Why are you doing that, man? I just wasn't 100% sure. >> It's out of season anyway. It's closed season grouper. It's undersized. And you're going to catch an interference charge for dumping it. Can you do me a favor, stand up? Face away from me. Sir. It's out of season. I checked I I thought red grouper was I'll have to just reference it again. I thought it was in season. No, sir. Oh, man. I'm going to be going. No, I'm just putting this into the the wake. No, we're not going anywhere. Okay, they got all my stuff on the boat, but We're just keeping it in with the waves. Do me a favor, if you don't mind, can you just sit on the floor? I don't want you to fall backwards. >> Sorry. Thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you. All right. Keep an eye out in case that's or ask him Ask him is that all he dumped? Is that all that you dumped? Yes. Are you sure? Yes. So, if I see any other floating fish, they're not yours? No, sir. No, no, no, no. I didn't dump Okay. All right. I didn't want to say no, sir, like implying that I had done something else, but that was it. And I thought it was in season. I thought it was 20 in. No, sir. Okay, just All right. I'm aware of that now, but Good. Good. I thought it was 20 in. All right. So, I'm going to show you red grouper closed season. Minimum size 20 in. Yes. Season doesn't open until April 30th. I thought it was Was it 20 in though? No. It wasn't in? No. >> About 19 and a quarter. Can I please turn on the camera? Thank you. All right. Sorry about that. I I thought It is what it is, man. Yeah, I just thought it was open season and I thought it was 20 in at least. >> Well, if you thought all those things, why did you dump it? Just trying to be slick, I guess, you know, instead of Well, 20 in for you know, it just kind of April 30th through Damn it. So, closes So, it opens Let's see here. After It's only closed between January 1st and April 30th. So, the rest of the year it's open. January 1st to April 30th. That's the April May June July. Okay, there's 8 months. Okay. I must have read it back. I I don't know what It wasn't intentional. All right. So, uh go over it with you. So, you're we don't issue a court date here. Broward County court will issue a court date for you, okay? So, you're going to get three citations and one warning. Citation's going to be for out of season, closed season red grouper, harvest of an undersized red grouper, and you're getting interference with an FWC officer, okay? So, it's interference obstruction during a resource inspection cuz you tried to hide the fish. All right. This fish is going to be seized as evidence for trial. Um upon trial, uh you may the evidence may be released back to your possession. That's what this property receipt's going to entail for you. Um but yeah, so you can't Look, it's one thing to to have a close one while you're spear fishing. Um but you can't you can't toss fish because you know they're undersized or you know they're out of season, whatever it may be. Um but those are your your three charges. Like I said, you're not going to have a court date set on this. Broward County Court will set the court date. You uh you can call in a few weeks once it's in the system and this number here at the top is going to be a resource citation number. They'll be able to take that and and schedule it with you, all right? Do you have any questions? Are those waterproof? Uh not quite. Yeah. Um I only need I only need one. Here you go. You need his signature on one and he gets a copy. >> Yeah, that's this one and that that that copy he can just have. Yeah. Okay, I didn't know which one you were going to sign. All right, so this one's his. All right. Uh here, if you want to take this definitive copy, too. I must have read the season backwards. I mean you you let it go for a reason. Well, I thought it was it was close to 20, that's why. All righty. Citations. He doesn't have He doesn't have anywhere to dry to put this. Uh I'm sorry. >> way we could take pictures of it? Maybe you send it to my phone number? I'll meet you if that's asking too Uh yeah, I mean no, I can do that as an email, but it So here's the thing though, like the copies Oh. you're going to have to sign and accept. You have to take that. So if you want a picture of it, that's fine, but you have to physically take that as well with you. So it's just it's kind of like a serve you I I I delivered it to you, so All right, so this is your property receipt. This is um this is like I said in the case that we do go to trial and the fish is released back to your possession, this is uh this is just our our chain of custody where it'll make its way back to you. All righty. And then the next one, I'm going to need a signature. And then if maybe if if it's not asking too much if we could just get a picture of that and sign it. >> no, he he's going to have your copies. We're going to take some pictures of it. I'll check and see if I even have a plastic bag in here, a Ziploc. Um, so I Yeah, I'll um, let me get this in here. Thanks, man. And then uh, we'll uh I I honestly I've read it backwards, but the size of the fish is what I mean just just for me and you, you know. >> I mean I know I get it. Look Look, man. I spear fish. I I spear fish, too. It looked bigger on the water. >> part of the game. Fish do look deceiving, but if it's if it's questionable, you don't pull the trigger, you know? >> going to be the lesson learned. >> Uh, it's That's the thing. It's uh when you're harvesting fish, wildlife, or game, the liability is on us. Sure. Sure. Sure. Do we have any ziplocks in here, maybe? Only thing I can think of is a water bottle. Yeah, we could do that. Do you have one? I have one I can drink real quick and dump, but I know we're not allowed to put it in the water bottle for him. We have to give him the bottle and give him the paper and say you can use this. It's up to That's fine. Here. Take All right. So, I have your copies here. And I have a water bottle. I can give you both things if you choose to put this in there and take it. That's for you. I just can't do it for you. Um This is a better idea than Just please try not to lose this. I would say if you can put it if Do you have a pocket or a waistband or or put it in your fish bag, tie it to your your dive flag. Yes, sir. And then here's Here's the top. This is about where you picked him up, huh? Pretty close. >> Yeah, I'm taking him over at least to where he dropped his gun, maybe. >> Yeah, that's what That's what I'm saying. No, we That's all we're going to do is try and try and put him over it. Um There's a little more time. Yeah, so we're going to put you over to closer to where your your stuff was. Cool. Thanks. Nonetheless, I appreciate you guys. Yeah. Thanks for what you and going and helping. All right, so whenever you have everything ready, um we'll stand up. Could I just uh put my fins on and flop over? That's fine. Yeah, we'll do that for you. All right. Uh And then whenever >> lose this? Yeah, yeah, you can lose that now. >> Appreciate you. All right, you can watch if you want to go forward or backwards a little bit, you can. Just don't want you to hit the ladder, all right? Just don't want to lose anything else. It's kind of milky out here today. Yeah, act of God for me to find that. All right, neutral it. Yep. Um look, so what I'm going to ask you to do is when you go over though, kick away from our boat, all right? So that way we can just back down. All right. >> Go that way. Just just a couple kicks just to create some distance. Sure. Yes, sir, you're good to go. All right, you're good. He's he's off. All right, you're good there. In the end, the suspect was charged with possession of an undersized red grouper, possession of an out-of-season red grouper, and interference with an FWC officer. He hired a criminal defense attorney and initially pled not guilty, but later pled no contest as part of a negotiated plea deal. The interference charge was dropped and his adjudication was withheld. He was ordered to pay $299 in costs and fines, which he promptly paid. If you like this video and want to see more like it, subscribe to Arrest Cam. As always, thanks for watching.