Two more arrested while panhandling in Hernando
SPRING HILL — Two homeless people were arrested while panhandling at U.S. 19 and County Line Road in separate incidents this week, Hernando County Sheriff’s Office reports said.
Andrea Arkin, 29, of Spring Hill, was arrested at the intersection around 4:45 p.m. Tuesday, the report said.
Arkin was standing in the center median of the busy intersection holding a sign that read, “Thank you for everything God bless truly,” when a deputy asked her if she had been warned about panhandling in right-of-ways, the report said.
Arkin said she had been warned several times and she asked to be released with a warning, the report said.
However, the deputy checked records and found that Arkin was warned the previous day at the same intersection, the report said.
Arkin was arrested and charged with violating the use of a state right-of-way. She was being held at the Hernando County Jail this week, although no bail information was available through jail records.
The day after Arkin’s arrest, Donald Craig Hardin, 47, of Spring Hill, was arrested at the same intersection at almost exactly the same time of day, a sheriff’s report showed.
Harding held a sign that asked for change and quoted a Bible passage, the report said.
Hardin told a deputy that he was warned several times about panhandling, but needed to make money for beer, the report said. He also was arrested and charged with violating the use of a state right-of-way.
Hardin was being held in the Hernando County Jail this week, but jail records did not indicate his bail amount.
The arrests of Arkin and Hardin bring to three the number of homeless people arrested since Sept. 7 for panhandling at a Hernando intersection, records show.
On Sept. 7, Brenda Monaye Duff, 40, was standing on the corner of U.S. 19 and Tarpon Boulevard around noon holding a sign that read “Homeless please help,” the sheriff’s office said.
A deputy observed her collecting money from motorists by walking into the road and hindering the flow of traffic by obstructing vehicles, deputies said.
Duff told deputies she had been at the intersection for 15 minutes and collected $8, according to the report. She said she moved to Florida about a month ago and lives with her husband in a truck in Homosassa, the report said.
Duff was charged with obstruction of public streets without a permit and arrested on Sept. 7, records said. She was released from the Hernando County Jail the next day, records show.
In 1998, Hernando enacted a ban on solicitation to keep people and property safe and to prevent delays and avoid traffic tie-ups.
Hernando’s ordinance proclaims it is unlawful for any person “to solicit for employment, business, contributions or sales of any kind or collect monies for the same, from the occupant of any vehicle traveling upon any street or highway.”
Violators can be fined up to $500, sent to jail for up to 60 days or both.
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