A Florida yacht owner, the charter company, the event planner, and the workers involved are facing fines following a happy marriage proposal on Tuesday.
Miami Dade Police placed one man under arrest and issued ten civil citations at $2,510 fine each for illegal dumping after a video showed an employee of the yacht, David Torres dumping over 50 balloons into the Biscayne Bay. Torres, the one seen in the video, was arrested on Wednesday and faces $10-thousand worth of fines on his own and a charge of reckless disregard for the environment and marine life.
The balloons decorated the yacht that Tom Rivas, a Miami fitness coach, chartered for a marriage proposal.
The balloons decorated the yacht that Tom Rivas, a Miami fitness coach, chartered for a marriage proposal. Rivas said he was inside at the time celebrating and taking photos as this was happening and had no idea that the balloons were being popped into the Bay.
I reached out to the event planner Cloud Nine on Wednesday for comment, and here's what they had to say:
Yesterday our company was mentioned as a party planner and balloon company that did incorrect balloons removed from the yacht charter. Per the client’s request, we brought a proposal setup for the pier, and our balloon vendor brought the balloons for the yacht. Our balloon vendor decorated the boat and left. We decorated the pier, finished the proposal, and cleaned up as we always do. We are never in charge of removing balloon decorations. Now we are trying to investigate the situation from our side. We are sorry for the situation we were involved in, and we are aware now of the damage it generated to our environment. We are taking the decision of not working anymore with any type of balloons when setting up decorations for an event close to the sea and will use this unfortunate event to take steps to become a company that cares for the environment. We are a small family business that has been doing events for 3 years. And we have never faced a situation like this before. For this, we want to learn and get better. Again, we want to state and reassure you that we will never use balloons for yacht decorations in the future.
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