Florida, the state that keeps giving us the best in “WTF” news, is back on the map because of a drug called “flakka.” A naked 34-year-old Fort Lauderdale man was stopped by police last Saturday (April 4), apparently high off the synthetic drug.
Local news outlet WSVN-TV broke the report of Matthew Kenney and his erratic behavior after using flakka which led him to run through streets with just his sneakers on. Witnesses caught Kenney on cell phone video before he ran by a pair of police vehicles.
More from WSVV:
Kenney, a Fort Lauderdale resident, later told officers he had just smoked flakka moments before streaking. He told police he was running from people who trying to kill him. “He was in fear that individuals were chasing him, that they had stolen his clothes,” said Fort Lauderdale Police Detective Tracy Figone.
According to the arrest report, Kenney said he wanted a car to hit him, telling officers, “Because if I got hit by a car they would stop chasing me.”
“He thought it would be better to be struck by a vehicle than to have these individuals catch him,” said Figone.
Cops chased Kenney down and subdued him, although he got away from them once more before they finally got him to stop running then took him into custody.
This isn’t Kenney’s first run-in with police as his record shows he’s been arrested three times since December for disorderly conduct, causing a riot, and possession of a controlled substance.
Flakka appears to be one of the many dangerous synthetics that people are using to replicate the feelings found in actual narcotics. In February, according to WSVN, a man named James West tried to break into the Fort Lauderdale Police Station high off the drug. Flakka’s ingredients are not known and there has been a rise of the drug’s use of late in South Florida.
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Photo: WSVN/Fort Lauderdale Police
