Story Archive

Not a Good Way to Overcome Shyness

Winter Haven, Fla., investigators say Jason Drake, 38, reported to the county probation office for a scheduled urinalysis. Drake was unable to provide a sample, and had to stay until he could. Six hours later, a 911 call came in reporting a man was going to “blow up” the building. The entire Probation and Parole building was evacuated until police determined the call was a hoax — and traced it to the cell phone of Deniz Martinez — Drake’s girlfriend. Police located Martinez, 31, in her apartment, where they say she admitted to calling in the bomb threat to get her boyfriend out of the urinalysis. Martinez was arrested on felony charges of filing a false report concerning planting a bomb, and Drake was arrested for probation violation — because he’d failed to provide a urine sample. “It’s a case of somebody that loves somebody so much evidently they’d throw everything away,” said Jamie Brown of the Winter Haven Police Department. “Love is blind and love can make you do things normal people just can’t fathom.” (MS/WFLA Tampa) ...Technically, though, the plan worked.