ST. LUCIE COUNTY, Fla. — A viral flyer with more than 4,000 shares is promoting a massive beach party at Pepper Park this Saturday, but the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office is warning people not to attend the unpermitted gathering.
St. Lucie County Sheriff Richard Del Toro said the party will not be tolerated and announced he is designating Pepper Park as a special event zone. The designation, under Florida statute, allows for stricter enforcement, increased penalties, including doubling all fines and vehicles becoming subject to impoundment for traffic infractions and violations.
WATCH BELOW: Sheriff promises to crack down on unpermitted beach party
"When we see this going on, we're making arrests, and we're not messing around. I'm not going to have people's lives put in danger or the quality life affected," Del Toro said.
The crackdown follows an unpermitted party at the park earlier this month that got out of hand and resulted in a shooting.
Shauna Walgrabe lives nearby and plays pickleball at the park.
"It is scary when you see helicopters flying over, and you can see that they're looking for people," Walgrabe, who lives nearby said. "It's terrifying."
Kay Van Dyke said behavior at the park has gotten out of hand and would like to see more enforcement.
"They come in here, they throw eggs on our courts," said Van Dyke. "They break bottles."
When WPTV showed Van Dyke and Walgrabe the flyer for another large unpermitted gathering planned for Saturday, they noted how official the post appeared.
"It looks like it's a function, like some kind of sponsored function, but it's not, obviously it's not," Shauna said.
Del Toro said anyone planning to attend the unpermitted event should think twice.
"My message to them is they're saying they're going to have a takeover, and I'm saying you're not, so that's really my message to them, and they're going to find out really quickly. We're not messing around here in St. Lucie County," Del Toro said.
The special event zone will remain in place at Pepper Park until the sheriff deems the area safe.
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