Minister fined $25 for using metal hoe to build a sandcastle

PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. – An Alabama youth minister was fined $25 for using a metal garden hoe to dig in the sand with his 7-year-old son while on spring break in Florida’s Panhandle.

The News Herald (http://bit.ly/2ocb1Cy ) reports Bryant Rylee of Moundville, Alabama, was building a sandcastle on Panama City Beach with his wife and son on March 23 when a police officer approached.

Rylee said the officer told them they couldn’t use metal tools on the beach, and Rylee asked to have the law cited to him.

Police Chief Drew Whitman says Rylee was given opportunities to fill in the hole but refused. Whitman says the law was adopted following a rowdy 2015 spring break and was designed to protect against sexual assaults.

He said it wasn’t intended to “mess up somebody’s sandcastle.”