Florida hotel and bar owners charged with felonies for dumping mothballs on beach

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers and Audubon volunteers discovered thousands of white mothballs on St. Pete Beach in late April, prompting a wildlife and public-health alert. Surveillance footage and receipt records linked the items to Robert Czyszczon, who purchased them at a Walmart, and to Christopher Monroe, whose phone data placed him at the site alongside Czyszczon on the nights the balls appeared.

Text messages between the two discussed plans to keep the birds away, fearing loss of revenue. Both were subsequently charged with illegal dumping, a third-degree felony, and with a misdemeanor for attempting to harass a state-listed imperiled species. They remain out on bond while the case proceeds.