Beach Mothball Plot: Pair arrested over protected birds

Two Florida men were arrested after wildlife officials said they spread hundreds of mothballs across a beach in St. Petersburg, Florida. Read more trending news Why mothballs?Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers said Christopher Monroe and Robert Czyszczon used them to keep shorebirds away from the area.The wildlife officers were first called to St. Pete Beach on April 20 when people found hundreds of mothballs strewn across the sand. Officials, with help from the Audubon Society and other volunteers, cleaned up the beach, WTVT reported. The next day, 500 more mothballs were found in the same area.Receipts from Walmart traced a large mothball purchase to Czyszczon, the owner of Palm Beach Hotel, FWC officers said. Officers got warrants for his phone that showed he was on the beach the nights before the mothballs were found there. There were also texts, officers said, between Czyszczon and Monroe that indicated they did not want the birds, identified by the FWC as