Attempts by those with no lawful business or residency for entry into the Florida Keys continues to be confronted at the MM 112.5 and Card Sound checkpoints. Not only are fake re-entry stickers still being spotted, but sheriff’s deputies and checkpoint staff are now seeing fake COVID-19 day-worker placards.
Not only that, checkpoints are also seeing people who are making changes to their mailing addresses and driver’s license address just days before their attempt to get through. And it’s opened up a new problem and a new investigation within the Monroe County Tax Collector’s Office.
Originally, day workers with legitimate day employment and business in the Keys were given a placard that would hang from the rearview mirror for entry. That has since ended due to growing abuse among people who were passing the placards they had to others and production of fake ones.
Sheriff Rick Ramsay said the most recent fake placard confiscated wasn’t the right color. The hole for placement on the mirror wasn’t a stamped circle, but a diamond shape cut with scissors.
In response to the fake placards, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office is moving to a new sticker system for placement on vehicles that will change in design and color every week or two. To curb attempts to emulate the stickers, the new ones will have a hologram feature, Ramsay said.
“As we give them out, we will flag you in, we’re going to identify you, who you are and why you’re coming to the Keys and how legitimate your business is as a day worker,” Ramsay told the Weekly. “When we decide to change color again, that will be based on time or people trying to fake them. We’re going to be immediately ready to change those colors.”
“It could be round and pink. The next time we change them and it could be a big square and green,” he continued.
Current stickers handed out to legitimate day workers beginning Thursday were orange and oval.
Ramsay said the sheriff’s office continues to work to stay ahead of the constant attempts by people who show fake and counterfeit stickers as they try to gain entry into the county — even though they own no property nor have any work. As to why they’re coming down? Ramsay believes some are trying to commit crimes of opportunity with businesses closed and people not around, while others are looking to get away and spend time on the sandbar or jet ski.
“By doing that, they’re exposing the community to potential public health emergencies,” he said.
On top of that, Ramsay says they’re violating Gov. Ron DeSantis’ “Safer-at-Home” order that limits travel for only essential business.
The county reported one positive case of COVID-19 on April 14 and two cases on April 15.
“It sends a message, I think, that the checkpoint — the efforts from the sheriff’s office, the county and cities — to try to mitigate and control who’s coming in here is working,” he said. “We believe the numbers of cars and people turned around everyday, it has to only mitigate and make the community safer.”
As to the volume of cars at checkpoints and those being turned, Ramsay said that number remains solid. As of Thursday afternoon, some 80 to 90 cars were turned around.
“I thought numbers would be dropping down, but we’re still seeing the same numbers every day of people being turned around,” he said. “It’s frustrating that people are not getting the message.”
TRACKING DRIVER’S LICENSE CHANGES
Checkpoint staff continue to face a tough assignment between heat indexes in the 90s, aggravated drivers who can’t prove residency and the finding of fraudulent stickers, which slows down traffic flow. On top of all that, people are now beginning to provide deputies with copies of a change in address on their driver’s license just days prior to their arrival at the checkpoint. Ramsay said they’re not letting those people in.
“That is not good,” he said.
They’re also seeing people who don’t live on the islands but own rental properties going online to change their official mailing addresses to the Keys.
“A lot of these people who have rentals live in Dade County. Their address for their bill goes to Coral Gables, for instance, because that’s where they live,” he said. “We’ve seen them go online and change their mailing address to an address in the Keys and try to show us a copy where they changed. We tell them ‘no, that’s not an original official copy.”
Ramsay said they’ve asked the county and property appraiser’s office to send notices of address changes to the tax collector in Dade County, stating that they no longer reside up there as a permanent resident, and thus should no longer be entitled to the homestead exemption.
“Where there’s a will there’s a way. People have nothing but time to figure how to beat the system,” he said.
The tax collector’s office continues to stay at the forefront to ensure vacation rentals are in compliance per the governor’s orders. But County Tax Collector Danise “DeeDee” Henriquez and Tax Manager Sam Steele are having to direct focus to driver’s license changes made online at the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles between March 22 to today.
Henriquez said she’s requested a list from the state Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles to find out how many people changed their addresses online recently. That list is expected to her office today or tomorrow, and she says she’ll investigate every one of them.
“We’ll have an indication on if it’s 10, 20, 100 or hundreds who have changed their address from Miami-Dade or Fort Lauderdale to Monroe County,” she said. “Sam and I are working with the property appraiser’s office and the supervisor of elections because we are looking at these addresses where they’re going on and changing to see if they have homestead property in Miami-Dade or Broward, as well as their voter registration and their vehicle registration.”
Changing address not only impacts their voter registration and vehicle registration, but it also affects their homestead exemption.
“If they’re living in Monroe County, they can’t have homestead in the mainland,” she said.
Henriquez said the sheriff’s office called her last week to ask about address changes online. Henriquez said those who change addresses online don’t have to show any documentation. When they come into the office, they do have to provide documentation. But because the office is closed to the public, they’re going online.
“When they change their address online, it will print out just a piece of paper showing that they changed their address,” she said. “My suggestion to the checkpoint was they need to see the hard copy, not just a piece of paper.”
State Attorney Dennis Ward said his office is working with the tax collector, property appraiser and supervisor of elections on the various issues.
“The investigations are ongoing,” he said. “People should be aware that fraudulent changes on drivers licenses are felonious in nature. Also, fraudulent changes on voters registrations are felonies as well.”
