{"id":415149,"date":"2026-09-30T23:08:07","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T23:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/415149\/"},"modified":"2026-09-30T23:08:07","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T23:08:07","slug":"woman-arrested-after-ai-threat-against-lee-county-sheriffs-office-investigators-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/415149\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman arrested after AI threat against Lee County Sheriff&#8217;s Office: Investigators | News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>LEE COUNTY, Fla. (WINK) \u2014 A Bonita Springs woman was arrested after investigators say she made threats to shoot up the Lee County Sheriff\u2019s Office while using an Anthropic artificial intelligence platform. The Lee County Sheriff\u2019s Office identified the woman as Carli Michelle Heller.<\/p>\n<p>According to the arrest report, a user identified as Carli made a statement on Sept. 26 saying she was going to \u201cshoot up\u201d the Lee County Sheriff\u2019s Office. Investigators say the same user made another statement the following day saying she had gotten a new gun.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The arrest report says Anthropic\u2019s AI platform uses safety and security measures to monitor for key phrases and potentially threatening content. Investigators wrote that because of the severity of the statements, the information was escalated to a human review team, which then reported the statements to law enforcement.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.winknews.com\/search\/?l=25&amp;s=start_time&amp;sd=desc&amp;f=html&amp;t=article%2Cvideo%2Cyoutube%2Ccollection&amp;app=editorial&amp;nsa=eedition&amp;q=Sheriff+Carmine+Marceno\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Sheriff Carmine Marceno<\/a> told WINK News that Heller later said she uses AI like a \u201cdiary.\u201d Deputies identified Heller and went to her Bonita Springs home and she was detained without incident before an LCSO intelligence detective took over the investigation.\u00a0 Heller is charged with making a written threat of violence under Florida law.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Sheriff Carmine Marceno said in a statement that artificial intelligence can be a useful tool but can also be misused.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cArtificial intelligence is a powerful tool, and like any technology, it can be misused,\u201d Marceno said. \u201cWhen someone uses AI to make or facilitate a threat, we have to take that threat seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Marceno also said users should understand they are \u201cnever truly anonymous,\u201d specifically when using AI chatrooms and searches.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAI may be changing the way threats are created, but our commitment to protecting the people of Lee County has not changed,\u201d Marceno said.<\/p>\n<p>Anthropic\u2019s published Usage Policy says its Safeguards Team uses detection and monitoring to enforce its rules. The company\u2019s policy prohibits using its products to facilitate or promote acts of violence or intimidation.<\/p>\n<p>Anthropic also states in its published government request policy that user information may be disclosed to law enforcement in limited emergency situations involving danger of death or serious physical injury.<\/p>\n<p>RELATED:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.winknews.com\/news\/lee\/man-arrested-after-deputies-say-he-posted-ai-generated-image-depicting-lee-county-sheriff-being\/article_84b02726-7775-4eeb-b7c3-d5b88b6123bc.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Man arrested after deputies say he posted AI-generated image depicting Lee County sheriff being shot<\/a><\/p>\n<p>WINK News reached out to Anthropic for comment and for more information about how its safeguards handle threats and when information may be shared with law enforcement.<\/p>\n<p>Ian Marlow, CEO of FITECH, told WINK News that the conversational nature of AI can lead users to believe an interaction is more private than it actually is.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSomething that feels that it is conversational in nature doesn\u2019t immediately feel like, \u2018Oh, this is something that is being recorded,\u2019 because they\u2019re just having a conversation,\u201d Marlow said.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Chrissann Ruehle, an assistant professor of AI and management at Florida Gulf Coast University, said people may turn to AI because it can feel nonjudgmental.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s also a sense of, if I interact with a machine, the machine isn\u2019t going to judge me,\u201d Ruehle said.<\/p>\n<p>Ruehle said users should still be cautious about treating an AI platform like a private diary.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAI is not your best friend,\u201d Ruehle said. \u201cWe need to keep in mind this is a technology.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Retired FBI Special Agent Richard Kolko told WINK News that law enforcement and courts are still navigating how to handle threats involving artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is all new stuff into the world and courts are still figuring it out,\u201d Kolko said.<\/p>\n<p>Heller has a court date set for November.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LEE COUNTY, Fla. (WINK) \u2014 A Bonita Springs woman was arrested after investigators say she made threats to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":415150,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[4038,164489,209,211,210,164485,22826,9322,2364,164486,28,9149,1598,164488,356,2094,164487,2631,38979],"class_list":["post-415149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-assistant-professor-of-ai-and-management","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-carli-michelle-heller","tag-carmine-marceno","tag-ceo","tag-federal-bureau-of-investigation","tag-fitech","tag-florida","tag-florida-gulf-coast-university","tag-law-enforcement","tag-lcso-intelligence-detective","tag-lee-county","tag-lee-county-sheriffs-office","tag-professor-of-ai","tag-sheriff","tag-wink"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}