Sam McKeown and Grah Acha at Celtic Fest. -STEPHANIE DAVIS / FLORIDA WEEKLY
Readers, I don’t know about y’all, but I was busier than a one-armed paper hanger last week. A sparkly season has me flitting from event to event – and then there’s just regular life – traffic, grocery shopping, laundry, more traffic. So, it’s safe to say that my brain hasn’t been running on all 4 cylinders of late, and we still have plenty of season left.
So, recently, when I was attempting to glue on an eyelash, while reading an e-mail on my phone, while I waited for my outfit to tumble dry so I could make it to an event by 6 p.m. (it was already 5:36 p.m.), my phone rang. I never answer numbers that display “Unknown” on my phone. But, somehow, my late-term ADHD suddenly manifested itself, and I found myself saying hello to someone who gave me a name, a badge number, and said he was with the Lee County Sheriff’s Office. I abandoned my eyelash as he explained (in a rather rude tone) that I had missed jury duty that morning and that I was in loads of trouble.
But I love jury duty
Spoiler alert: It was a scam – and yet for everything he kept saying he knew about me (previous addresses, my maiden name, and other intrusions into my life), he did not know a very important fact about me – I long to be chosen for jury duty. I’m a true crime fan – I watch Dateline, Law & Order, 20/20 – all of them. To be on a jury is literally on my bucket list. I would never miss jury duty.
On my way to the pokey
But, this man, who kept getting angrier, louder, and more and more authoritative, somehow convinced me that there was a warrant out for my immediate arrest and that I needed to stay on the phone with him (a “mobile escort”, he called it), drive myself to LCSO main headquarters and “turn myself in”. How I nearly fell for this, I’ll never know – but he did have personal info of mine, and he was threatening to send me to jail…IF I didn’t pay several thousand dollars in fines immediately, over the phone, with a credit card.
Wait? What?
Thankfully, my brain kicked back into gear once he mentioned money, and I hung up. I’ve done a bunch of research into this scam, and it’s unusually common and often easily successful for the thieves.
So, lesson learned – no matter how busy and flitty you are, pay attention. According to LCSO, a member of law enforcement will never demand money or threaten jail time. My own personal advice? Worry about your eyelash rather than an “unknown” caller.
A beautiful day to be Celtic
Admittedly, I was a little rattled for about a day after experiencing all that, but it wasn’t anything a beautiful afternoon at Celtic Fest in downtown Fort Myers couldn’t fix. This annual festival is always a good time, and the City of Fort Myers does a great job at the helm of the event. I’m an avid Screaming Orphans fan and was happy to get to the Caloosa Sound Amphitheater in time for their first set. I met up with some girlfriends, and we shopped the booths, ran into friends, counted men wearing kilts, and soaked in all things Celtic. It was delightful seeing Barbara “Sadie” German, Noelle Casagrande, Mayor Kevin Anderson, City Council member Diana Giraldo, Cheryl Logan, Mark and Susan Blust, and many more who were Irish and/or Scottish for a day.
Stephanie Davis. -COURTESY PHOTO
Stephanie Davis is a recovering girl-about-town formerly known as the Downtown Diva. A nearly native Southwest Floridian, when she’s not photographing events for Florida Weekly, she’s perfectly content to stay at home binging Netflix with her husband and three cats, Tennessee, Lilibet, and Jack.