On February 9th, 2025, an officer with the Monroe County Sheriff's Office was on patrol when he observed several stone crab traps on the gunnel of a boat. As he approached the vessel, he saw a 73year-old male named David measuring stone crab claws. All right, whose trap is it? We just found this trap. This trap we just found and there's no name on it. That's why it's here. Is it yours? Okay, then why is it on your boat? buoy. Well, because there was no buoy. Well, it could be somebody that lost their buoy and now they're looking. I just said there's no name on it. It's exactly Okay. Well, we don't know that the name wasn't put in the concrete. We don't know a lot of things, but it's not going to go in your boat. Just because you found the trap, it's not, "Hey, we found a trap. It's ours. We're good." You know what? I honestly thought that that's the way it worked. You know what that's called? It's called trap robbing. It's a felony. No, I honestly didn't know that. Okay. Um, if I dig through that and I find a name Sure. then I can call the owner and if they want to press charges I did it last week. I found two traps and I called the owner right over here. I do that. I do that. Good. Well, and if you can't find the owner, you leave it in the water, sir. I called her and she came over and picked them up. You want me to throw it in the water? Yeah. Yeah. you. We don't need We don't need traps that don't belong to us. You don't believe me? Okay, let me just check. Well, let's I think it' be better with the roll where it's going to get so many different color. [Music] Who's measuring these? Okay. Well, here's one that's short. Okay. Why don't Why don't you go ahead and measure? And I'm measuring it from there to there. So So we don't even know how to measure it then. Well, don't I thought you measure it from the joint? Yeah. To the bottom side of the claw. It's the bottom claw, sir. The bottom side of the claw. [Music] You know, I'm not out here trying to violate. I didn't say you were, but you are. Okay. But you do. Look at the size of that. Jesus. Like babies here. This one doesn't even make the top side. I don't know how you measure that. That doesn't even have the top side. Measuring it with this. Okay. What? Let me see your measuring device. Your measuring device is exactly like mine. Has the correct size. All right, another baby. Wow. Let's see. That one's good. That's why there's no stone crab out here barely. Jesus, look at [Music] this. Wow. This one doesn't make the top [Music] either. All right, let's see how many we got that are unders sized. one. All right, let me see your flares. Make sure they're in date. Can you open that up for me, please? [Music] These may be the new ones. 28. These are good. All right. I see you have your sound producing device. Um, do you have a type four throwable? A throwable device. Can I see that? Okay. And then for life jack if hold that and your fire extinguisher if that's around. There's a T-Mobile technician on train street requesting you be in route. You can get into power. Uh yeah, let me Okay, good. We uh should I throw this trap in with the remote power? Uh sure. You got to put a buoy on it, though. We don't have Then you can't put it back in. Well, that's why we do that. See, that's You could put that back in. As a matter of fact, if you want, I'll take it and I'll put it over there and have somebody come by and get it. That's what I Jesus Christ. Unbelievable. Don't put your hands in there. They won't. That's what I got big fenders for. Here's that. All right. This guy's no good. It's got empty. Yeah, it was. Okay. Before the season. Yeah. You got to in the water in December. Okay. I guess I I haven't checked it because it's in the accident. Go ahead and put an offense number in there. And next available court date reference. Possession of seven undersized uh crab claws. So, you're probably doing a record check on me. You're probably seeing that I've never had a violation for anything. Couldn't we consider a warning? Well, sir, um, so no, I don't do a a actual records check on you and I don't go based on it's it's kind of like that's that's how you do bad work is not really. I mean, but then, you know, theers all have different opinions. Yeah. And and and and the thing is, like I said, you know, we're we're sitting here after two seasons, I'm educating you where how to measure. Forget I asked. And even if you were measuring the top, you still had like two of them that didn't ever make the top measurement. Okay. [Music] You can have it. I will. Okay, I'm going to take it. [Applause] All right, sir. You're being given a mandatory court appearance. Um, it's going to be uh February 26, 2025. I'm going to circle it right here. 8:45 in the morning. This is the address right here, which is at the Plantation Key Courthouse, just north of where you live. Uh, actually south of where you live. Um, you got to make sure you appear. Um, otherwise, they'll put a notice uh, a warrant out for you for failing to appear. All right. Attorney present. Absolutely. Yes. Yes, he can have an attorney present. Um, just make sure he shows up too if if that's all you're asking him to do. Um, so you're being charged with possession of seven undersized uh crab stone stone crab claws. And if I can have you sign right here, this is not an admission of guilt. It's just stating that you know uh what your court date is, you know what you're being charged with, and that you promised to appear. Earlier you said it was a misdemeanor. What did you mean by that? That means it's not a felony. It's there's there's two different charges. Misdemeanor, there's two different levels of crimes. Misdemeanor, within misdemeanor, you have first degree misdemeanor, second degree misdemeanor, and then you have felonies. That's where people do more. So, with misdemeanors, you can't do more than 365 days in jail. And with felonies, you can go to prison for it. So, um you're being charged with a misdemeanor. That's not saying that you're going to go to jail. It's just stating that you are being charged with a criminal offense. What were your options other than I understand the warning? It was the lowest you could do as a misdemeanor. Is that the lowest you could have from a judgment standoint? I'm asking Yeah. Yeah. I mean I mean Yeah. So we take our resources very very serious. So do I. And and it's it's very unfortunate that I'm we're put in this position. Um, it is, you know, because you didn't measure your stuff accurately. That's not the question I asked, Mr. Sanchez. I asked, is what you're charging me with, is that the lowest charge you could have charged me with if you decide to charge me? Yes. Yes, that is. That is. Yes. And as a matter of fact, I could charge you I could give you seven counts, which is normally what they request us to do is do seven counts of undersize. not doing that because then you'd face seven different charges of possession of undersized. I don't do that. I consider that kind of, you know, um I don't think there's a need for that. Um there's probably is at some point, but there isn't a need for that in this situation. So, I'm only charging you with one. And then of course, um, being in possession of a of a trap that's not yours is a whole other misdemeanor, or you can even carry it as far as a felony, which I'm not going to do. I'm just going to go drop this off at EFWC station. I appreciate that. And I will just say I, you know, I live over here in my neighborhood. A lot of these people were up here and I did too. And and they Yeah. Yeah, that what I did was what I thought I could do. I Yeah. Yeah. Well, making the crab trap water. That was a good thing because you know they die would be a better That that's that's correct. However, each crab trap has um the the biodegradable uh wood wood. So, it's it's supposed to prevent them from actually dying. So, also I'm just looking um your trap. Can you do give me a quarter turn on that, please? No, just the trap itself. There's a crab in there. Yeah, I know. Well, here's another thing. And five there. You got what? Five traps, I'm assuming. Yeah. And and um this one's yours also. Yeah. Okay. If if you can look at it and notice there's one two misdemeanors already. They don't have a um you're supposed to have an exit hole in there that came out this year. [Music] Um Yeah. See that? Yeah, that's fine. That one doesn't. Yeah, that's an older track. Yeah. And you're not doing it. You do it for one, but you don't do it for the other, you know. And and I Is that even the right size? Yeah. I don't think that's even the right size. I mean, so guys, we we can't just come out here and just like you, you know, we got to do it the whole way. Just asking you. I I understand. And and I'm and again, I'm trying to tell you, you know, it's not just Yeah. I'm not going to listen to my neighbors. I'm going to read the rules. Yeah. Yeah. And we got to have the hole on there on all the traps. You can't even put that one back in. Yeah. So, if you want, pull that pull that claw out and measure it while I'm here and make sure that you're measuring it correctly like I showed you guys earlier. If I can have you sign this right here, sir. Like I said, it's not an admission of guilt. It's just stating you promised to appear and that you know that you're being charged with possession of undersized crawfish or um uh stone crab claw. Yeah, it's got to have that escape ring. And they don't they don't really s they don't really tell you, hey, you got to buy that escape ring, but the escape ring has to be of the size. The hole has to be of the size. So, um yeah, and if you're going to go pull the other traps, make sure they have an escape ring. Otherwise, don't put them back in the water cuz um FWC can and so could I. I mean, we could go around pulling traps. You got your whole name and everything on it. Hey, there's no escape ring. We can just go and give you another misdemeanor. We don't want that. That's not what we're going for. Lady, thank you. Thank you. You had a question. I'm just curious, you know, off the top of your head, what statute these rules fall under? Um, it's it's on there. It's a Florida administrative rule. Perfect. and it's um Florida administrative rule. You'll see it right right there on his copy. Perfect. I don't have my glasses on, but it's um Florida administrative code. Awesome. That's the statute. But then the administrative code is at 68B-13 right there. Perfect. And you could look up Florida administrative code. It's all on the FWC rules. Um, so we as as law enforcement officers on the water, we um we actually uh enforce whatever FWC enforces as long as it's within state and county waters. All right. Okay, you all have a good day. In the end, David pled no contest and was sentenced to 6 months of probation, 36 hours of community service with the option to buy out at $10 an hour and order to pay $798 in fines and costs. If you like this video and want to see more like it, subscribe to Arrest Cam. As always, thanks for watching.