Watch a Florida woman get arrested for giving money to a roadside flower vendor
A Southwest Florida woman attempting to give money to a roadside flower vendor ended up arrested last week.
TikTok user Arely Castillo, with the handle @arelyyy38, posted footage of the chaotic scene that went down along Imperial Parkway in Bonita Springs around 6:30 p.m. Wednesday.
In the clip, a woman, later identified as Annika Olson, is screaming at the bystander shooting the cellphone video.
“I just tried to give her $20!” Olson whimpers. “I just tried to give this lady $20! Please send this [video] to me!” and then gives Castillo her phone number.
“Relax, relax,” says an officer as he places her in cuffs.
The TikTok soon went viral and many social media users were shocked because the woman’s offense seemed so minor and commonplace.
“I hope she’s OK,” wrote one. “This is NOT right.”
“Poor girl ... OMG.”
“This is so messed up.”
In a lengthy Facebook post, the Lee County Sheriff’s Office explains what led up to the arrest, saying that deputies were initially investigating flower vendor Norma Garcia.
The agency said the woman was in violation of a county ordinance that prohibits the sale of merchandise from the median or in the road.
The post explains that the investigation was taking a while because Garcia, who had been deported to Nicaragua last fall, speaks only Spanish.
According to a police report, while Garcia was being placed under arrest, Olson pulled over her 2014 white Ford Edge on the inside northbound lane of Imperial, and stuck money out of her window, insisting that it be given to Garcia.
The deputy advised Olson that “she needed to keep moving, and that she was blocking traffic and creating “a safety hazard,” said the report, which notes that Olson refused all commands.
A deputy then requested the woman’s driver’s license, which she provided. As he went behind her SUV to get the tag, Olson exited and approached the other deputy who was placing Garcia into the rear of the patrol vehicle.
Olson was still attempting to give the flower lady money, and wanted to place the bill in the deputy’s patrol car. She was ordered to get back in her car, which she refused, says the charging document.
At this point, the deputies “grabbed Olson to detain her,” and she “began bracing and tensing her arms to thwart” their effort, the report says.
After a brief struggle, Olson was handcuffed and taken into custody, charged with refusing to comply with police’s lawful orders, resisting an officer without violence and interfering in the public right of way.
“The safety and security of our residents is our priority, and when education fails to ensure the safety of our residents, arrests follow,” the Lee County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
After bonding out, Olson, who lives about 150 miles north in Valrico in the Tampa Bay area, told local station NBC2 News that she felt bad for the vendor.
“I never intended on anything to happen,” she told the outlet. “I just wanted to give someone 20 bucks because they were having a bad day. I had no idea panhandling was illegal; people do it all the time.”
