Bricks thrown at cars? A bicyclist hit? It’s a mystery for police in Fort Lauderdale
Police said it began with a string of 911 calls reporting a group of 100 to 300 bicyclists “disrupting traffic, blocking bridges, surrounding vehicles and vandalizing vehicles” in Fort Lauderdale.
Some 911 callers reported fights and bricks being thrown at cars, call logs show. Police said they also got a call about someone hit by a car.
Within minutes, Fort Lauderdale officers arrived to the 2700-3000 block of North Ocean Boulevard Saturday night expecting to find chaos. Instead, they found nothing.
There was no evidence of fights, bricks being thrown or a struck bicyclist, according to an incident report.
The only injured person officers found in the area was a 43-year-old man who was bleeding on his arms and legs. He was “with the crowd that was standing in front of vehicles and when the vehicles attempted to get out of the way the male fell off his bike and caused minor injury,” Fort Lauderdale Officer Ashley Schmetob wrote in the report.
Adding to the mystery: A video obtained by WPLG and WSVN shows a driver going into the bike lane and slamming into bicyclists in the area of Oakland Park Boulevard and A1A Saturday. WSVN’s video shows additional snippets: a group of bicyclists riding across an intersection in the area, what appears to be bricks next to a car on the road, and a man with what looks like blood on his chest. Police on Monday said they didn’t have any video of Saturday’s incident.
One man told officers he saw 50 bicyclists riding on the road in both lanes of traffic, “causing a disturbance,” and traffic problems, the report states. The man thought someone was hit, police said.
Saturday’s bizarre report comes just days after bike safety was put into the spotlight again after two bicyclists were struck and killed by a driver May 15 on the Rickenbacker Causeway in Miami-Dade County.
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“There were no victims of vandalism on scene and contact with other callers were unable to be complete per dispatch ... At this time Police cannot determine a victim of a crime. All bicyclists left N/B from the 3000 block of N. Ocean Blvd.,” Schmetob wrote.
Detectives want tips on what happened Saturday night and are asking anyone who has video of the incident, information, or was victimized during this commotion to contact them at 954-828-5567 or 954-828-6070.
This story was originally published May 23, 2022 at 4:20 PM.
