- Under Florida law, you can be imprisoned for six months for damaging a tree on private property.
- Police say Yanelly Guzman should have left her contact details on a note attached to the tree.
- While authorities have dropped the hit-and-run charge, Guzman has to pay thousands in legal fees.
No matter how experienced you are behind the wheel, chances are you’ve had a minor run-in with a pole in a parking lot, the edge of your garage, or—if you were really unlucky—another vehicle. But for one woman in Cape Coral, Florida, a recent brush with a tree while parking resulted in her getting arrested and charged with hit-and-run in what has to be one of the silliest overreactions by law enforcement in recent memory.
The incident happened on Christmas Eve while Yanelly Guzman was parking before her shift at T.J. Maxx. As she pulled into a spot, she felt unexpected pressure on the roof of her Toyota RAV4. Backing out, she realized her A-pillar had clipped a low-hanging tree branch, an annoying but otherwise forgettable mishap that could (and probably has) happened to plenty of people.
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Her coworkers advised her to get in contact with the Cape Coral Police Department so she could file an insurance claim to pay for the damage. In what sounds like a sketch from Saturday Night Live episode, a police officer apparently told Guzman that she should have left her name, car registration number, and phone number in a note attached to the tree. Yes, really.
From Fender Bender to Jail Cell
Of course, in the grand tradition of Florida making headlines for all the wrong reasons, this minor accident somehow escalated into an actual arrest. The officer took Guzman into custody on the spot, charging her with hit-and-run. She was booked into jail and only released after paying $150 bail. But that was just the beginning of her problems.
Speaking with WECT 6, Guzman says she can’t eat properly or sleep well after the traumatizing incident. Not only that, but she has to pay roughly $4,300 in legal fees and repairs for her RAV4.
Fortunately, common sense prevailed—eventually. The state attorney’s office dropped the charges after determining there was no actual evidence she had hit the tree. Bizarrely, someone who hits a tree on private property and leaves the scene in Florida can be imprisoned for up to six months.
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“I would just cry and cry because I’m a person that never got in trouble,” Guzman told WECT 6. “I don’t think that it was fair what they did to me. They ruined my life. I don’t eat well. I don’t sleep well. I know that a lot of police officers are wonderful person, but I’m scared. That’s how I feel right now.”
The lesson here? If you ever so much as graze a tree in Florida, you’d better treat it like a high-profile crime scene. Rope it off, call in a forensic team, maybe even hold a candlelight vigil for the affected branch. And for good measure, tape your confession to the trunk, preferably notarized. Otherwise, you might just find yourself explaining to a judge why you “fled the scene” of a botanic hit-and-run.
H/T to The Autopian!