'Stinky Paul,' other homless men keeping FWB Police busy

FORT WALTON BEACH – A homeless man who didn’t want to sleep in the woods was arrested for sleeping in a baseball stadium dugout, lawmen say.

On June 6 a Fort Walton Beach Police officer swung by Jet Stadium on Jet Drive to check on things. In one dugout he found a man sleeping. Next to him were an opened beer and a collection of food items.

The officer got the man’s name and discovered he’d been issued a trespass warning for the park just the day before. The man said he was aware of the warning, but told the officer he was “not going to sleep in the woods,” the officer wrote in the arrest report.

The man was charged with trespassing and has a June 25 court date.

Meanwhile, a homeless man became irritated with a police officer who emptied his bottle of gin onto the ground and told him, “F--- it, take me to jail then.”

On June 6 the officer was conducting a security check at Fort Walton Landing when he spotted a group of people sitting at the gazebo. He saw one man hide a bottle of liquor behind his back.

The officer collected the liquor, a bottle of gin, and asked the man for his ID. The officer then issued the man a trespass warning for the park, as having liquor there violates a city ordinance, and at some point poured the gin out on the ground. The man replied, “Arrest me for disorderly intoxication or leave me alone.”

The officer told the man to leave the park, and the man scolded him for emptying the bottle of gin, then denied having any gin.

When the officer told him to leave the park again, the man said, “F--- it, take me to jail then.”

The officer complied.

The man was charged with trespass after warning and will enter a plea on June 28.

Then on June 7, an officer found two men sitting on steps at Fort Walton Landing eating food and drinking a beer. A records check indicated he’d been issued a trespass warning for the park the day before. One man told the officer he couldn’t be issued a trespass warning for a public park. When the officer said he could, the man said he forgot.

He was arrested for trespassing and has a June 25 court date.

The other man, known on the street as “Stinky Paul,” was arrested for trespassing.

His court date is June 25.

That same day, an officer was handling a vagrant complaint at Perry Avenue and U.S. Highway 98 when a man approached and told the officer a homeless had an active warrant out for his arrest. The officer checked and sure enough, the man had a warrant. The officer found the man at Fort Walton Landing and arrested him on an out-of-county warrant charge.