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The Pinellas Park resident caused a commuters' nightmare Monday. Now he's charged with making a false report. Bail is set at $20,000.
By MIKE BRASSFIELD and LEANORA MINAI
© St. Petersburg Times, published July 3, 2002
Investigators had their doubts from the beginning.
First, the caller who reported that two Middle Eastern men had thrown a suspicious package off the Sunshine Skyway bridge was able to provide details about the size and contents of the box, despite driving 70 mph.
Second, the caller said he passed the pickup carrying the two men in the middle of the bridge, but that the pickup overtook him by the end of the bridge.
"That's a little difficult to understand, how you're going 70 mph and someone can blow right by you," said Rick Morera, spokesman for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
On Tuesday, authorities arrested John Irving Taylor III, a 42-year-old Pinellas Park fisherman and plumber, and accused him of staging a hoax that caused a nightmare for countless Monday morning commuters.
State officials say Taylor's arrest on felony charges should send a message to anyone who considers reporting a fake terrorist threat.
"These kinds of activities are not going to be tolerated," Morera said. "You're talking about a threat against a major piece of infrastructure here that's vitally important."
Taylor was in the Pinellas County Jail on Tuesday, his bail set at $20,000. He is charged with making a false report of a bombing or arson against state-owned property.
According to state law, Taylor, if convicted, must pay restitution to the law enforcement agencies that sent 40 officers to the Skyway on Monday morning.
The bridge was shut down for an hour as officers swarmed over and under it, checking for explosives. They turned up nothing.
The incident came three days before the July Fourth holiday, at a time when federal officials have been warning the public and law enforcement to be alert for possible terrorist activity.
At 8:41 a.m. Monday, Taylor called 911 and asked the Pinellas County operator to hook him up with the FBI, according to an arrest report. Taylor told authorities that he saw two Middle Eastern men in a pickup throw a box off the bridge.
Investigators became suspicious after hearing inconsistencies in Taylor's statements, Morera said.
Taylor admitted to investigators Tuesday that he made two prank calls, but he did not give a reason, Morera said.
That's what Taylor's neighbors in Pinellas Park were wondering Tuesday: Why would he do that?
"I don't get it. Maybe he wanted attention," said Larry Paisley, who lives across the street from him.
Taylor lives with his wife and three children in a rented house at 5420 96th Ter., a pleasant suburban street filled with well-manicured lawns. No one was at the house Tuesday.
Neighbors don't know the Taylors well.
"She was with the children, and he was by himself all the time," Paisley said. "They're very weird. Very strange people. They never go anywhere together."
Taylor has a criminal record but had not been in trouble for 15 years. He pleaded no contest in 1986 to carrying a concealed weapon and pleaded guilty to delivery and possession of marijuana in the early 1980s.
FDLE agents canvassed Taylor's neighborhood on Monday evening, asking neighbors about his whereabouts that morning. They were trying to figure out whether Taylor had been home Monday morning instead of on the Skyway.
"They wanted to know if I had seen his white van in front of the house that morning," said neighbor Tony Kieta.
The state investigators were persistent, said neighbor Joanie Van Wagner.
"It was pouring down rain, and they were going door to door," she said, "so we knew it was something big."