Florida never fails to deliver the kind of stories that make you shake your head and wonder what goes through people’s minds.
A 57-year-old woman just terrorized an entire Key West neighborhood because she was convinced someone stole her cell phone.
And a Florida woman terrorized one Key West neighborhood with a loaded gun over a phone that never left her SUV.
The American Legion hall turned into the launching pad for chaos
Gail Marie Stephenson had been drinking at the American Legion hall on Friday night when she decided to play Good Samaritan.
She gave a ride home to some younger guy she didn’t even know – which already sounds like the opening scene of a disaster movie.
After dropping him off, Stephenson realized she couldn’t find her phone and immediately jumped to the conclusion that her passenger must have stolen it.
That’s when a simple case of misplaced property turned into an armed neighborhood terror spree that had multiple residents calling 911.
Stephenson grabbed her .22 Magnum revolver and started hunting for her "thief" house by house through the 1300 block of Ashby Street.
One man got a gun pointed at his chest for trying to help
The first victim was a 52-year-old man who made the mistake of being a decent neighbor.
When Stephenson pulled up outside his house around 10 p.m., honking her horn repeatedly, he came out with a flashlight to see if she needed help.
Big mistake.
"Stephenson grabbed a revolver and pointed it at his chest," according to the police report.
She then set the gun down and told him she’d been robbed, pointing toward a nearby house and insisting that’s where her "thief" had gone.
The poor guy said he moved closer to verify that she had actually pointed a gun at him – because who expects that kind of reaction when you’re trying to help someone?
When he did, Stephenson "picked up the gun quickly and exited the vehicle and took off."
She forced her way through gates and terrorized innocent families
But Stephenson wasn’t done making enemies.
She marched over to the house she’d pointed out and forced her way through a closed fence gate onto private property.
The woman who lived there said Stephenson "banged on her door a couple of times" before leaving when no one answered.
Smart move by the homeowner – she had no idea who this crazy woman was and wisely stayed inside.
While this was happening, police were getting multiple calls about "a woman fitting Stephenson’s description" who had a revolver and was "banging on people’s homes and threatening those residences, stating she had been robbed."
This wasn’t just one isolated incident – she was moving from house to house, terrorizing an entire neighborhood.
Police found the truth in about two seconds
When Key West police finally caught up with Stephenson, she was standing next to her white Ford Explorer, reeking of alcohol.
She "admitted to having several drinks" that night and remained absolutely convinced that the younger man had stolen her phone.
Stephenson "became emphatic" that she wasn’t armed and told officers they could search her vehicle to prove the phone wasn’t there.
That backfired spectacularly.
"Stephenson opened the front driver’s side door to show me the inside of the vehicle and I immediately saw the phone that was reported to have been stolen lying on the driver’s side floor," the officer wrote in the arrest report.
The cops also found a revolver case in the back of the SUV, even though Stephenson insisted her husband "must have it with him in Georgia."
The loaded weapon was stashed behind a trash can
Police weren’t buying Stephenson’s denials about the gun.
They searched the area and found her loaded S333 Thunderstruck .22 Magnum revolver stuffed inside a purple Crown Royal bag behind a trash can on someone’s property.
The weapon was loaded and chambered with two rounds, and police found four additional rounds in the bag.
So much for not being armed.
Stephenson managed to dispose of evidence while drunk and panicked, but she wasn’t smart enough to actually look for her phone before going on an armed rampage.
What this really shows about Florida’s ongoing problems
Look, we all lose our phones sometimes, and nobody likes that sinking feeling when you think someone might have stolen it.
But normal people retrace their steps, call their phone, or maybe ask around politely.
They don’t grab a loaded revolver and start threatening neighbors at gunpoint.
This is what happens when people combine alcohol with poor judgment and easy access to firearms – you get innocent families terrorized over a phone that was never missing in the first place.
The 52-year-old man who tried to help Stephenson could have been seriously hurt or killed because he had the audacity to come outside with a flashlight when someone was honking their horn.
The woman whose property Stephenson invaded could have faced the same fate if she’d answered her door.
For folks who live in quiet neighborhoods and try to look out for each other, this kind of behavior makes everyone more suspicious and less willing to help strangers.
Stephenson got arrested on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, armed trespassing, and evidence tampering.
She made bail by Monday morning and has an arraignment scheduled for October 10.
But the real damage is already done – an entire neighborhood got traumatized because one drunk woman couldn’t be bothered to look at her own floorboard before assuming she was the victim of a crime that never happened.
The next time someone’s honking outside your house asking for help, you might think twice about grabbing that flashlight.
¹ Sarah Kennedy, "Florida woman goes on an armed rampage over a ‘stolen’ phone that was in her Ford Explorer the whole time," Key West News, September 22, 2025.
² Chris Perez, "Woman uses .22 Magnum to terrorize residents over ‘stolen’ phone that turned out to be in her car the entire time, cops say," Law & Crime, September 22, 2025.
³ KC Wildmoon, "Armed Florida Woman Harasses Residents Over ‘Stolen’ Phone That Was in Her SUV the Whole Time," The Crime Report, September 23, 2025.
