BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Bradford County Sheriff Gordon Smith said he was shocked at the condition inside Starke’s Sonic after deputies executed a search warrant on the premises on Friday, April 19.
Two of the eatery’s employees were arrested as a result of the search.
Madison Kathleen Loftis, 22, of Keystone Heights, was arrested for possession of drugs and possession of drug equipment after deputies found a pipe and a container with 124 grams of THC wax in her car.
Kaitlyn Nicole Watkins was arrested for child neglect and possession of drugs after deputies discovered the 28-year-old’s small child sleeping in a red bench wagon inside the restaurant. Also in the wagon was a glass pipe with methamphetamine and fentanyl on the pipe.
“During a search of a pink purse that was located near the handwashing station,” wrote Detective Andrew Johnson in an arrest report, “I discovered two, one-dollar bills with a white powdery residue. I conducted a field test on the white powdery residue, yielding a presumptive positive result for methamphetamine and fentanyl.”
Johnson added that Watkins’s ID was also in the handbag.
Smith said his deputies obtained a search warrant for the restaurant after a customer discovered a foreign substance in his purchased food. The foreign substance tested positive for marijuana and methamphetamine.
“So, the guy was upset,” Smith said. “He had already fed his kids some of that food.”
The sheriff said that even before the complaint, his agency had been investigating the restaurant.
“We had already had some information,” he said. “We did some staking out, took the probable cause, obtained a search warrant, hit the store, and it was the most deplorable thing.”
Smith described filthy items lying next to food, adding, “The store was in such a disgusting shape.”
“You open the freezer door, and stuff’s just thrown all over and shuffled,” Smith added. “No organization. I was shocked.”
The sheriff said he contacted the franchisee in Mississippi, who said he was considering closing the Starke location in June, even before its latest problems.
“And I’m like, well, why? It stays busy.,” Smith recalled of the phone call. “He said, ‘Well, we’re not making any money.’”
Smith added that the City of Starke has cited the property for code violations.
“It’s sad,” he said. “I mean, I hate it because Sonic could be such a great place. I told the guy: What happened with a coat of paint? What happened to keeping the store clean? We go to Sonic in Middleburg all the time because of this. There’s no excuse for it.”
