Calling a Florida sheriff's office for help leads to social media humiliation, woman says

A 26-year-old woman from New Port Richey, Florida, says she’s upset at the way her call for help with an unusual — and private — matter had been handled by local law enforcement.

The woman, who did not wish to be identified, called the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office non-emergency number when she became concerned over opening a thermos filled with semen.

The woman, who had tried unsuccessfully for years to become pregnant and decided to try artificial insemination, was packing the thermos with dry ice, as instructed, but realized she forgot to remove the O-ring. The sheriff’s office admitted that it was a dangerous situation, as the thermos could have exploded.

Firefighters and deputies responded to her call and the situation was safely handled with no injuries, but the woman later became upset after seeing a post about the mishap on the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page. The post did not contain her name, but, she claims, it contained enough information to identify her.

“We attempt to show every day what our officers see in calls and we are a very open agency about the types of calls we see each day,” Pasco Sheriff Chris Nocco said in a statement. “This was a very unique call faced by our officers as well as Pasco fire fighters … make no mistake, this was a potentially dangerous situation … we are grateful that no damage was done.”

The sheriff’s office later said, “In these types of situations, we never publicly release names or identifying information. Unfortunately, this information was obtained through a public records request of our reports and was published by the media.”

The woman talked with reporters, however, after she said her name was “already out there.”

[ Tampa Bay Times ]