A Florida teacher was arrested after he was allegedly found naked inside an elementary school.
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Joe Urias, 34, was allegedly discovered at Windmill Point Elementary in Port St. Lucie, Florida, by Dep. Eric Holbert, one of several deputies that live on school grounds in the county.
“The more it unfolded, the weirder it got,” Holbert told WPEC.
The bizarre incident allegedly took place on Nov. 28, Thanksgiving night, when Holbert noticed the man inside the school — without any clothes on.
The deputy claims that when Urias saw him, the man tried to grab his clothes and flee.
“I identified myself, I held both of my hands up and said ‘deputy sheriff, stop!’ And he said, ‘No bro,’ and tried to run through me,” Holbert told the outlet.
“We tussled a little bit, he hit me right here in the lip, I hit him in the jaw and I was able to hold him with a jiu-jitsu seatbelt grip.”
A silent alarm was triggered when Urias allegedly broke into to the school through a window, but officers who responded “inspected the grounds, didn’t find any forced entry or signs of burglary” after they secured the perimeter, so the scene was cleared, Port St. Lucie Police Chief Leo Niemczyk detailed to the outlet.
However, he added, “the deputy living on campus remained behind, and then had the occasion to observe this man inside the school.”
Cops allege the naked man also had marijuana and sex toys in the classroom, along with a makeshift bed.
“There’s a large pillow that kids sleep on,” Holbert claimed. “There was some sort of stain on that.”
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Urias, who was employed as a teacher at nearby Somerset College Preparatory Academy, allegedly told the deputy he was “homeless,” and whenever he was done teaching for the day, he would hang out at coffee shopes, then sleep wherever he could.
“He knew this week that schools were out, so he was going to break into the school and stay there for the week,” the deputy alleged.
Joe Urias was charged with lewd and lascivious behaviour, burglary of an unoccupied structure, marijuana possession and battery on an officer.
He is being held on a $31,000 bond at St. Lucie County Jail.
The charter school where Urias worked as a teacher shared a Facebook post that read: “We are reaching out to inform you about a matter that recently came to our attention involving allegations, unrelated to our school, against an individual formerly employed at our school. Please be assured that we are cooperating with law enforcement as they address this situation.”
Chief Niemczyk noted there were no children present nor was there anyone inside the school at the time of the incident.
“As to the vulgarity, I don’t even want to get into his mind and think about what he was thinking,” he added. “I have no explanation for what he was doing.”