The beauty of the holiday season is that we’re always in for a bevy of heartwarming stories about friends, family members and even random strangers going out of their way to put a smile on someone’s face. This is not one of those stories. In fact, because it comes to us from Florida, you can go ahead and assume that this is the complete opposite of one of those stories, because the only thing that was warmed was a hospital bed. Granted, it started out with a questionably kind act, but in the end it was just dumb. Dumb dumb Florida dumb.
A 54-year old man named Lee Vern Cook was visiting a friend in the intensive care unit at the North Okaloosa Medical Center in Crestview, Florida on Christmas Eve, and if it wasn’t bad enough that the person was in the ICU, the unnamed patient was also eventually transferred to the burn ward. According to Northwest Florida Daily News, that’s because Cook’s present for his friend was a good, old crack rock.
A fire broke out at 3:43 p.m. when the patient, who was on oxygen, tried to smoke the cocaine from a homemade smoking device, according to a media release from Crestview Police Department.
The only property damage was to the bed linen, hospital gown and oxygen mask, the release said.
The ICU are was not evacuated.
“The potential was there for a lot of damage,” said Crestview Police Lt. Donald Fountain. “It could have been a lot worse.” (Via NWF Daily News)
A Christmas miracle? Maybe. But not for Cook, as he’s facing a lot of time in jail for much worse than just smuggling some crack into a hospital and starting a fire in a room with a bunch of people who are already hurting enough. Cook also admitted to police that he had a loaded gun in his possession, because… well, Florida, obviously.