A Fort Walton Beach man has been arrested for allegedly causing a September power outage that left 5,600 customers without electricity.
- Michael Hall, 42, was charged with tampering with “critical infrastructure” after DNA evidence linked him to the incident at a Florida Power Light facility, the Fort Walton Beach Police Department announced Wednesday.
The outage occurred Sept. 8, 2024, at 1:30 a.m. and required FPL employees to work multiple hours of overtime to restore service, according to the report.
Police responded to the FPL facility at 31 Hollywood Blvd NW at 4:35 a.m. for a possible burglary. Investigators say they found a cold can of alcohol at the scene and submitted it to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for DNA analysis.
- The results identified Hall as a suspect. After detectives interviewed him, he was arrested and charged with violation of Florida State Statute 812.141 (2)(b).
