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First Coast Connect

ONLY IN FLORIDA: Dumb Crooks And A Supreme Pageant Error

And our runner-up is, our winner! ONLY IN FLORIDA!ONLY IN FLORIDA is our weekly roundup of the strange, bizarre and just plain ridiculous headlines from right here in the Sunshine State.

ONLY IN FLORIDA do suspects make fake 911 calls to try to throw off the police.

Thirty-one-year-old Herbert Foster of Holly Hill ran from a routine traffic stop, and as deputies and police dogs gave chase dispatchers got a call from someone reporting Foster had left the area in a Ford Mustang.

A second call to 911 told cops Foster was hiding out in a neighborhood called Hollyland Park. Foster had of course actually made both calls himself.

Deputies eventually caught up with him, and he is currently out on bail. (South Florida Sun Sentinel)

ONLY IN FLORIDA do male chauvinists attack little bunny rabbits when they don’t get their way.

Police say a Boynton Beach man argued with his girlfriend over women's rights, then violently attacked her rabbit when she said she wanted to end the relationship.

According to an arrest report, when the woman retreated to a bedroom to end the argument she heard a high-pitched screaming coming from the apartment's living room. She told police she went to the living room and saw her boyfriend James W. Wertz, 28, abusing her pet rabbit by squeezing and punching it.

Police report the rabbit survived the beating and is recovering. Wertz was located and arrested a few hours later. He remained jailed Tuesday on battery and animal cruelty charges. (Local 10)

ONLY IN FLORIDA do the people who run beauty pageants tabulate the votes wrong.

Yes, it seems the state still hasn't lived down those hanging chads of 2000.

Just a week after her coronation, the winner of the 2014 Miss Florida pageant was dethroned last Friday when organizers said they crowned the wrong woman after a vote-count error.

Elizabeth Fechtel, a 20-year-old student at the University of Florida, is still in shock after finding out she didn’t really win the pageant.

It seems the true Miss Florida contest winner was Victoria Cowen, a 21-year-old student at Florida State University. After the Florida mix-up came to light this week, pageant organizers sought an independent review. (People)

Send your ONLY IN FLORIDA suggestions to firstcoastconnect@wjct.org.

You can follow Melissa Ross on Twitter @MelissainJax and Patrick Donges at @patrickhdonges.

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Patrick Donges served as WJCT's Digital Content Editor from August 2013 - August 2014.