KEY WEST, Fla. (AP) — Police in Florida are searching for two people who burned a part of Key West’s famous Southernmost Point buoy early New Year’s Day after setting a fire near the tourist attraction.
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Authorities said two males lit a Christmas tree on fire in front of the buoy around 3:30 a.m. Saturday and the flames charred sections of the colorful, 4-ton (3,600-kilogram) cement monument that reads “90 miles to Cuba, Southernmost Point, Continental U.S.A.”
#NEW: Two men set a Christmas tree on fire next to the #SouthernmostPoint buoy in #KeyWest overnight, scorching the face of iconic landmark. @2OceansDigital surveillance cameras captured the incident.
Key West police now investigating. #Florida #SouthFlorida @nbc6 pic.twitter.com/N9K6fB8beH
— Ryan Nelson (@RyanNelsonTV) January 1, 2022
Archival webcam images of the buoy from a marketing company shows two people lighting the tree on fire near the marker, with the flames leaving a large black burn mark on the monument.
The webcam showed tourists gathering near the damaged buoy for pictures later Saturday.
The red, yellow, black and white marker resembles a giant marine navigational buoy. It proclaims that Key West is 90 miles (145 kilometers) from Havana. Artists restored the monument after it was damaged during Hurricane Irma in 2017.
Idiots taking selfies as they did it.
And ofc chabad even reached the lowest point of continental USA
Soooo no one is going to say anything about the menorah? Chanukka is over, we are nearly in Shvat
Was in Key West a couple of winters ago. Got into a conversation with the Israeli owner of a souvenir shop (not far from that iconic buoy). She said that she started closing on Shabbos. Let’s hope that is still going on.