Instead, the man was confronted by an MMA fighter, a Russian YouTuber and their camera-carrying entourage, who were livestreaming the interaction to thousands of viewers online.

The 50-year-old did not appear surprised. He recognized the fighter, Dustin Lampros, from his videos.

“Oh,” he said, laughing, “you got me.”

The man was placed under arrest by Delray Beach Police and taken to the Palm Beach County jail. That was only the first arrest of the evening. Over the next three days, Lampros and Vitaly Zdorovetskiy recorded back-to-back confrontations with nearly a dozen other people from throughout South Florida, all of whom, they said, had traveled to either Delray Beach or Boynton Beach for the purpose of meeting children.

“There’s no better feeling, chat,” Lampros, wearing one of his “561 Predator Catchers” shirts and joggers, told viewers. “There’s no better feeling than getting a grown adult locked up that is coming to meet a kid for sex. There’s nothing more fulfilling. This is what life’s about. Protecting the children and serving.”

The men were doing the first of multiple collaborative streams in Lampros’ stomping grounds of Delray Beach. Both are “predator catchers,” or content creators who use “decoys” to chat with adults online while posing as minors, then arrange meetings in supermarkets and fast food restaurants. There, they record themselves confronting and questioning the accused pedophiles until the police arrive.

Around the world, predator catching has flourished since the popularity of the 2000s hit “To Catch a Predator,” fueled by social media algorithms, distrust of the justice system and an epidemic of child exploitation online, experts say.

And in Palm Beach County, where prosecutors and police have sought to publicly distance themselves from the predator catchers, Lampros’ group has become the dominant force behind arrests and prosecutions under the state’s “traveling to meet a minor” statute, court records show. Calls from his team, 561 Predator Catchers, which focuses on Delray Beach and its surrounding area, have led to approximately 40 arrests in the county since it started in 2022, records show, outnumbering arrests by police acting alone under the same statute. Their “catches” include multiple local teachers, a campus safety officer, a rabbi who tutors children, and, most recently, a Miami-Dade police lieutenant. Several have already led to convictions, with one resulting in a nine-year sentence.

The predator catchers have also attracted controversy. Some, like Zdorovetskiy, have been accused of assaulting and humiliating their targets as viewers push for violence. Even the more restrained Lampros is facing criticism from local attorneys and law enforcement who say his group’s tactics violate constitutional rights and jeopardize legitimate investigations. 561 Predator Catchers now appears in so many Palm Beach County prosecutions that several defense attorneys have formed a group to share discovery materials across the cases, according to a recent court filing.

But Lampros says that the work his team is doing has only revealed a pervasive problem that law enforcement alone is not solving. Nationally, experts have said that police no longer proactively conduct undercover operations as frequently due to limited resources.

“We’re actually exposing a hole in the system down here,” Lampros told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “They don’t have enough resources to do it like we’re doing it.”

The predator-catching formula

An MMA fighter with the nickname “Scrappy,” Lampros moved to South Florida from Illinois 11 years ago. He started 561 Predator Catchers in 2022 with his friend, Ryan Montgomery, who was already working with predator catchers across the country. Montgomery later left the group, but Lampros stuck with it, and the channel has grown steadily. He works with the assistance of multiple “decoys” around the country and a cameraman.

The group’s Instagram bio reads, “trying to make South Florida a better place by catching one child predator at a time.” It encourages people to donate via CashApp. Defense attorneys have estimated that members of the 561 Predator Catchers team have each individually brought in at least $50,000 from the videos, though they “believe the amount is far higher,” according to court filings.

“I wish,” Lampros told the Sun Sentinel when asked about the figure, though he declined to share how much money he makes from his content. He emphasized that his objective is to protect children, not financial gain; for the first several months, he said, he didn’t publish any videos of the catches. His childhood best friend was a victim of sexual abuse at the hands of their school principal for two years, he said, before the principal killed himself, which makes the issue especially personal to him.

The group’s videos follow a formula similar to Chris Hansen’s “To Catch a Predator”. Lampros employs a “decoy” to chat with potential predators on websites like Grindr, Whisper and MeetMe. Some decoys appear young; others use AI to make their photos look younger. During the conversation, the decoy will reveal that he or she is underage, but the predator will agree to meet anyway.

Lampros then confronts his targets, telling them that he and his team “monitor online activity between minors and adults” but that he won’t call the police as long as they talk to him openly. He does not tell them that he has already called the police and officers are on their way. In nearly all of the videos, the accused predator agrees to talk at length about his or her reasons for showing up that day (while the vast majority are men, women have also appeared in Lampros’ videos). Often, they admit that they were trying to meet with someone underage, though some deny that they would have gone through with anything sexual. Some have brought condoms and sex toys to the meet-ups.

In many chat logs documented in police reports, the accused predators appear fully aware and excited about the prospect of meeting children.

“I’d teach u about sex,” wrote one 43-year-old Palm Beach Gardens man, who thought he was messaging a 13-year-old girl, according to a probable cause affidavit, later asking her if she has had her period. When deputies searched his phone, they found hundreds of images and videos of child pornography.

Other stings by Lampros have similarly led police to evidence of further crimes, police reports show. One man, a transient resident of West Palm Beach, was revealed to have failed to register as a sex offender; a search of another’s phone found that he had a sexual relationship with a girl when she was 17 and he was 32. When Boynton Beach Police contacted the girl, she said she wanted to pursue charges.

Sometimes Lampros leans more heavily into alternative forms of punishment. He has confronted accused predators at their homes, in front of their spouses. In one video, he ordered a man to call his wife on the phone and tell her what he had done as well as perform push-ups and sit-ups.

“Let me see the predator push-ups,” Lampros told the man as he knelt to the ground in front of his house. Later, as the man began doing sit-ups, Lampros said, “Repeat: I’m not gonna talk to kids ever again.”

“I’m not gonna talk to kids ever again,” the man said.

A controversial figure

Lampros’ approach is tame compared to Zdorovetskiy’s.

The YouTuber emigrated to the U.S. from Russia and has traveled the world performing pranks and publicity stunts alongside predator-catching videos, amassing over 10 million subscribers. He was detained for months until January of this year after his pranks in the Philippines led authorities to arrest him and declare him an “undesirable alien,” according to the country’s Bureau of Immigration.

Prior to his arrest, he was known for controversial videos targeting alleged predators in South Florida. In one video, he shaved a man’s eyebrows, saying “this is what you do to pedos.” For another, he and his group posed as a 15-year-old boy and pressured a man to meet at an apartment in Miami-Dade County before surprising him with a live alligator and telling him he would have to fight it, according to a 2024 memo from prosecutors.

Police arrested the man, but the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office declined to file charges, citing “evidentiary problems” linked to the tactics of Zdorovetskiy’s group, including the fact that the defendant’s comments were made under duress due to the threat of the alligator. They wrote that, should the case proceed to trial, “the Defendant would come off as unusually sympathetic.”

Off camera, Zdorovetskiy’s criminal record includes a 2020 arrest on charges of violently beating a female jogger in Miami Beach, an assault which required stitches. Prosecutors dropped the charges after he participated in a deferred prosecution program.

Streaming with Lampros over Valentine’s Day weekend, Zdorovetskiy toned down his behavior but still toyed with the men the group caught. He asked the first accused predator if he was a citizen, and then, upon learning he was Puerto Rican, questioned if he was related to Bad Bunny. During another confrontation at a McDonald’s, he put a dildo confiscated from the accused predator on his forehead.

Zdorovetskiy did not return voicemails or texts left by a reporter.

Some of the streamer’s viewers, used to his more aggressive antics, were disappointed by the relative lack of excitement.

“this is getting boring vitaly can you cut their hair and do crazy shit make them eat dog food,” one person wrote. While the two were questioning an alleged predator, others wrote, “MAKE HIM CRY BREAK HIM DOWN” and “BOX THIS FAT BASTARD.”

Several of Lampros’ viewers criticized his recent decision to collaborate with Zdorovetskiy given the latter’s history. But Lampros said that he agreed to the collaboration to have more control over the situation since the YouTuber was already planning to film videos in the same area.

“People should be more concerned about the people we caught than the people I catch with,” he told the Sun Sentinel.

Other viewers have urged Lampros to be less restrained.

“More violence please,” one commenter wrote on recent Instagram post.

This past weekend, the two men joined forces again in Delray Beach.

‘This is gonna go so wrong’

Fort Lauderdale defense attorney Adam Rossen hadn’t heard of predator catchers until a couple of weeks ago, when he got a flurry of calls from prospective clients. He started watching Zdorovetskiy’s videos.

“Me and my attorneys are sitting there going oh, no, no, no,” Rossen, who is currently representing two accused predators who have not been arrested, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “This is gonna go so wrong eventually. It’s just a matter of time.”

Defense attorneys and law enforcement experts say the encounters are unpredictable and dangerous, especially for the decoys, who often meet with the alleged predator before the cameras arrive. In the recent sting involving the Miami-Dade lieutenant, a decoy posing as a 15-year-old girl told police that he touched her chest without her consent prior to the arrival of the predator catchers, according to a report.

Multiple people stopped by Lampros and Zdorovetskiy were carrying guns, according to police reports. Nationally, multiple people caught in predator-catching operations have died by suicide.

There are also due process issues. When law enforcement officers conduct undercover stings, they must be careful not to entrap defendants by inducing them to commit an act they wouldn’t have otherwise committed, such as by pressuring someone to meet for sex. Entrapment applies to law enforcement, not civilians, but it can apply if civilians are operating as an extension of the government under what is known as the state actor doctrine.

Police regularly use evidence supplied by the catchers to support search warrants and arrests, including chat logs and recorded phone calls, records show. But the chat conversations could be edited, legal experts say, while the phone call recordings could run afoul of Florida’s two-party consent law.

Rocky Brancato, a Tampa-based defense attorney who specializes in sex crimes and has reviewed Lampros’ videos, said he believes his relationship to the police would designate him as a state actor.

“The police know what’s going on,” he said. “They’re allowing it to happen.”

Relationship to police

Since Lampros’ group began in 2022, the majority of all arrests in Palm Beach County under Florida’s “traveling to meet a minor” statute came out of Delray Beach Police responding to his calls, records show.

In 2024, calls from Lampros’ team led to 20 of 22 total arrests under the statute that year, records show, 19 of which were made by Delray Beach Police.

Asked about the predator catchers’ relationship to Delray Beach Police, spokesperson Ted White told the Sun Sentinel, “They’re doing their own thing. They’re their own thing, they don’t collaborate with us in any way, form or fashion. They basically just call us when they’re at a certain point where they believe police need to intervene.”

White did not respond to follow-up questions about the police department’s resources for combatting child sex crimes or grant a Sun Sentinel request for an interview with someone in the sex crimes unit.

On camera last month, Lampros and Zdorovetskiy praised Delray Beach Police for their responsiveness. “Should I move to Delray?” Zdorovetskiy said at one point during the stream, following another arrest. “I don’t think the cops will ever get tired of this.”

Other agencies, they say, have not been as amenable to predator catching. Lampros has criticized Boca Raton specifically, saying officers told him not to call them again after he reported a catch leading to a conviction.

Boca Raton Police have had only two reported interactions with the group, records show. In one, a detective wrote that Lampros would not allow him to download the unedited video of a catch from his phone, though the man still ended up getting arrested and pleading guilty. In the other, Lampros called about an alleged predator at a Publix but, when asked to go to the police department to make a formal report, he “refused,” the police report says.

In response to questions about Lampros’ comments, Boca Raton Police spokesperson Jessica Desir said in a statement that “the Boca Raton Police Services Department has a Computer Crimes Unit dedicated to investigating these types of crimes. These investigations are often complex and require time to build a case that supports successful prosecution.”

Local police say they are well-equipped to handle child predator investigations and have encouraged predator catchers to report suspected offenders rather than confront them on camera. Several agencies, including Delray Beach, Boca Raton and Boynton Beach, participate in the South Florida chapter of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, or ICAC, a national organization that provides funding for police efforts targeting child sex crimes, including undercover operations.

The task force, managed by the Broward Sheriff’s Office, has made 520 arrests in 2025 alone, according to Sgt. Thomas McInerney, who serves as the commander of the task force.

McInerney emphasized that his task force works directly with prosecutors and that investigators receive special training while adhering to strict standards regarding evidence. In contrast, he said, predator catchers may use tactics that prevent successful convictions such as selectively editing interactions with suspects, failing to preserve evidence properly, and engaging “in conversations that may support entrapment defenses.”

“I have personally communicated with members of several of these groups and encouraged them that, if their primary goal is protecting children and ensuring justice, they should immediately notify law enforcement upon identifying an individual attempting to exploit a child online,” McInerney told the Sun Sentinel in an email. “This allows trained investigators to assume the case, properly preserve evidence, plan a safe arrest, and pursue a successful prosecution. Unfortunately, some groups have chosen to continue conducting public confrontations and recording those encounters for social media distribution rather than properly communicating the information to law enforcement.”

But Lampros says that ICAC is not doing enough to combat the problem. As for entrapment, he is not a police officer, and even if he were, he doesn’t think that defense applies.

“You think if it goes to trial, a jury of the public is gonna say, ‘You know what, he said he wanted to have sex with the 14-year-old four times, but I don’t really think he was going to’?” he told the Sun Sentinel.

Over the last few years, child exploitation has surged online; a 2025 study found that one in 12 children worldwide have fallen victim to online child sexual exploitation or abuse. Nationally, some experts have argued that law enforcement lacks the resources to counter it.

“ICAC Task Forces throughout the United States used to regularly conduct undercover operations targeting offenders who traveled to meet and assault individuals they believed were 10- to 14-year-olds,” John Pizzuro, the retired commander of New Jersey’s chapter of ICAC, testified in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in 2023. “… Unfortunately, task forces are no longer able to perform these types of operations — they are resource intensive, and the volume of reactive cases prohibits it.”

Prosecutions

Dozens of cases spurred by predator catchers are now making their way through the court system, and many of them are succeeding. At least six stings led by Lampros have resulted in plea agreements in Palm Beach County, records show, with several convicted predators facing two-year sentences. At least 25 are ongoing.

In response, local defense attorneys have created a group to share discovery evidence amongst themselves due to the sheer number of cases involving Lampros, according to a January court filing. Some have begun asking for the YouTube videos of their clients to be removed.

“The ongoing publication and maintenance of YouTube videos by civilian ‘predator catcher’ groups, who are witnesses in this case, constitutes a form of extrajudicial conduct that creates a substantial and imminent threat to the administration of justice and the defendant’s right to a fair trial,” reads a motion filed by Brian Balaguera, a member of the defense attorney group.

Rossen was surprised to learn that a number of Lampros’ operations have already ended in convictions in Palm Beach County, not just because of due process issues but because those prosecutions would require the catchers to sit for depositions, motion hearings and trials.

“There’s so many constitutional and procedural issues when it’s done by a civilian like this,” he told the Sun Sentinel.

Lampros says he has sat for depositions and is often one of the lead witnesses, though none have gone to trial.

In response to questions over their decision to prosecute cases and the extent to which predator catchers are involved, a spokesperson for the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office told the Sun Sentinel in a statement that “successful child sex crimes prosecutions by our office are based on evidence that is properly collected during investigations by law enforcement agencies. Our office does not coordinate with or seek input from civilian ‘predator catcher’ groups concerning arrests, case filing decisions, plea negotiations, or sentencing recommendations. As always, each case is reviewed individually to determine whether there is enough evidence to prove the charges presented by law enforcement beyond a reasonable doubt.”

By comparison, both Broward and Miami-Dade have received and prosecuted only a handful of cases since 2022.

The Broward State Attorney’s Office said that it is reviewing three cases but has not otherwise received any or filed formal charges in recent years, save for one case in 2022 from a group known as Colorado Ped Control. The Broward Sheriff’s Office arrested a man last week after an operation of Zdorovetskiy’s; it is one of the three cases under review at the State Attorney’s Office.  

“We encourage anyone who believes they have information that could identify a child predator to report that information to law enforcement agency for investigation,” a spokesperson for the office told the Sun Sentinel in a statement, adding that there are “potential legal issues when individuals who are not in law enforcement engage in this behavior as they may end up violating the law and jeopardizing the ability to make an arrest or sustain the charges in court.”

A Miami-Dade prosecutor said in an email provided to the Sun Sentinel that the only case brought to the State Attorney’s Office in recent years was the one involving the alligator, which the office declined to pursue.

Stranger danger

To predator catchers and their viewers, a lack of support from prosecutors and police is only further evidence that a system designed to protect children cannot be trusted to do so.

The public’s fascination with child predators is not new. Beginning in the 1970s, fears spread across the United States that tens of thousands of children were being abducted by strangers each year, according to Paul Renfro, a history professor at Florida State University and author of “Stranger Danger: Family Values, Childhood, and the American Carceral State.”

The statistics later proved to be exaggerated, Renfro said, but the concerns remained, bolstered by a series of disturbing, high-profile abductions, including the Hollywood abduction and murder of 6-year-old Adam Walsh that thrust his father John Walsh into the spotlight.

The movement brought about new measures to protect children, such as sex offender registries, Renfro told the South Florida Sun Sentinel, but it also placed “the threat of child sexual exploitation outside of the home,” obscuring the reality that the majority of sexual abuse takes place in private, at the hands of people children are supposed to trust.

It continued into the 2000s with the success of “To Catch a Predator,” which popularized sting operations to nab suspected predators. Since then, other child exploitation-focused movements have gained a foothold, often characterized by a distrust of the justice system.

“There’s always kind of been this vigilantism embedded within the child safety movement,” Renfro said. “There’s this skepticism of law enforcement and this belief that law enforcement generally don’t care about what’s going on with children and aren’t interested in investigating these cases.”

Many members of the public view predator catchers as heroes for exposing people who might not otherwise face retribution. Some local viewers have offered Lampros’ group free services or meals.

“You’re a saint!” one commenter wrote on a recent video. “Us moms thank you for all you do!”

Christl Ramirez, a 36-year-old guardian ad litem and mother of two, discovered Lampros through her husband and quickly became a devoted fan. When she was 12 years old, she said, a man tried to molest her in Collier County; after she told the police, they picked him up and dropped him off down the road at a supermarket.

“I feel that our system is very failed in that way,” she told the Sun Sentinel. “And him bringing it to the public for us civilians to be able to see it starts an uproar.”

To report a suspected child exploitation crime, contact the confidential tip line at 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678) or use the online reporting form at https://southfloridaicac.org/report-a-tip/

Staff Writer Shira Moolten can be reached at smoolten@sunsentinel.com or 754-971-0636.

Diane Hernandez del Calvo, who has worked for the railroad for more than two decades, was unanimously named by the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority board to temporarily run the more than three-decades-old operation that served more than 4.5 million travelers last year in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.

The board’s monthly meeting Friday was the last one for Dech, and it was his last day on the job.

An auditorium in the Tri-Rail headquarters building next to the rail line’s Pompano Beach station was heavily populated by staff members and contractors, as well as Dech’s wife, Kathy.

Last month, the career railroader from Ohio announced he was leaving to take command of a Midwest commuter line that operates between South Bend, Ind., and Chicago.

Confident in restored funding

Dech, who started with Tri-Rail in August 2022, said he would not have departed if he believed the Legislature would not restore a $27 million funding cut to the Tri-Rail budget incurred last year.

For the better part of 2024, Dech has spearheaded the railroad’s lobbying campaign to restore the money which was cut, a move that Dech estimates would bring Tri-Rail to a halt by July 2027 if the funds were not replaced.

“We’re in session and nothing is finalized,” he told the board Friday. “But the mood, the temperature in Tallahassee is very supportive. I have extreme confidence in the folks that are leading this charge in Tallahassee. The commitments that people have given us over the last six months — they are living up to the things they’ve said they were going to do. … I have no indication that this will not end up in committee and not end up in our favor.”

“If I thought that the funding was not going to be restored, if I thought this was a sinking ship, I would stay here and go down with it,” he said. “But I don’t think that. I have the utmost confidence the funding is going to be restored and with a clear conscience I can move on to where I’m going.”

Fare boost approved

Board members, understanding the railroad itself is responsible for contributing to the annual pool of funds, voted to move forward with a 10% fare increase that would be installed later this year.

All fares in Tri-Rail’s Byzantine pricing scheme would be rounded up to the next dollar, except for the line’s $5 weekend fare, which will remain in place. The weekend fare allows customers to ride anywhere all day within the system — one-way or roundtrip.

The proposed increase needs to be submitted to the Federal Transit Administration for approval. Then, an FTA-mandated public hearing would take place and another 30 days would have to pass before the increases are implemented.

No timetable for those events has been set.

Both Dech and board member Raquel Regalado, who represents Miami-Dade County, noted there has not been any price increase since 2019.

Plaudits and proclamations

The board members agreed that the new executive director should have professional experience that mirrors the resume that Dech brought to South Florida: that of a railroader. He started his career with the CSX freight giant as a switchman, rising to engineer. He came to Tri-Rail from Capitol Metro in Austin, Texas, where he served as vice president of rail operations.

The firm K&A Partners, the Bethesda, Md., firm that located Dech more than nearly four years ago, will conduct the search for his replacement.

In both style and substance, members noted, Tri-Rail’s operations improved across the board under Dech’s stewardship, as he fostered an agency-wide culture of teamwork and accountability.

Among a long list of accomplishments, he is credited with activating a stalled plan for Tri-Rail to start serving the MiamiCentral station in downtown Miami, which it now shares with Brightline.

Under Dech’s tenure, Tri-Rail’s on-time performance dramatically improved, the rail corridor that runs from north of West Palm Beach to Miami International Airport was cleared of homeless camps, new locomotives were ordered, passenger coaches were fixed and cleaned up, and an array of other equipment has been ordered or installed to improve day-to-day train operations.

Equally important, members noted, Dech built and sustained working relationships with various individuals and private and public sector organizations that do business with Tri-Rail.

Board members from each of the three counties presented him with proclamations from their respective boards of commissioners recognizing Dech’s work.

Miami-Dade proclaimed Friday “David Dech Day.”

“Remember on your first day I told you this was going to be a painful experience?” recalled Regalado. “I apologized to your wife and said, ‘I’m so sorry we put him through all this stuff but we have a lot of cleanup to do.’ But you’ve been such a great sport.”

“It has been a heck of a ride,” Dech told the audience. “It has been one of the most humbling and honoring experiences that I’ve had in my life.”

“When you go to these jobs your goal is always to try to leave it in a better place than you found it,” he added. “I think we’ve done that. But personally the South Shore line is going to have to thank the people in this room. Because I am definitely stronger and better at what I do having spent the time here.”

The deadline to request a mail ballot is Thursday, Feb. 26.

State law sets a strict deadline of 5 p.m. for vote-by-mail ballot requests to be at the county elections office. That includes online applications. Postmarks for mailed applications don’t count.

People can request mail ballots online.

Residents of two cities, towns and villages in Broward and 19 in Palm Beach County are electing local officials, deciding on referendums, or both. Some communities will pick successors to departing mayors who have been in office for years.

There are three key factors voters may not be aware of and need to know:

— People who want to vote by mail in the March municipal elections need to make new requests if they haven’t done so since the 2024 presidential election. Under state law, all requests for vote-by-mail ballots made prior to the 2024 presidential elections have been voided.

— There is no in-person early voting for the city, town and village elections.

— Voters who have renewed or replaced a Florida driver’s license or state ID may need to update their license or ID number with the county supervisor of elections office so the request for a mail ballot can be processed.

Who can vote

Most Broward communities have their local elections in November. Palm Beach County municipalities generally use the uniform March election day.

Broward voting: Lauderhill and Pembroke Pines. Candidates in four other places were unopposed, so elections won’t be held.

Palm Beach County voting: Boynton Beach, Belle Glade, Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Greenacres, Gulf Stream, Hypoluxo, Juno Beach, Jupiter Inlet Colony, Lake Park, Lake Worth Beach, Loxahatchee Groves, Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Palm Beach Shores, Royal Palm Beach, South Palm Beach, Wellington, and West Palm Beach.

Only people who are registered to vote in municipalities are eligible to participate. Voters whose address lists a city, yet reside in an unincorporated area, are not eligible to vote in the municipal election.

Returning mail ballots

People should return their mail ballots well before Election Day, March 10.

Florida law features a strict deadline for returning mail ballots. They must be back at the county elections office by 7 p.m. on Election Day. Postmarks don’t count.

Elections officials routinely warn against waiting too long to return ballots and risking a Postal Service delay. Every election there are ballots that arrive late and can’t be counted under Florida law. In close elections there often have been enough uncounted ballots to potentially change the results.

People can also return their mail ballots at drop boxes at supervisors of elections offices in their home counties. Details about the hours and locations are available at the county elections office websites.

State law no longer uses the term “drop boxes” for ballots. Florida changed the name to “secure ballot intake stations” after Republican activists claimed without evidence that they weren’t sufficiently secure and could lead to fraud.

Someone who requests and receives a mail ballot is not required to use it. Voters can still vote in their neighborhood polling stations on Election Day, March 10. Safeguards are in place to prevent someone from voting more than once.

Make it count

To make sure your vote counts, mark the ballot exactly the way the instructions specify. If you don’t, it might not scan correctly.

If someone votes for more than one candidate in a race (unless it’s a contest in which people are supposed to pick more than one candidate), the vote won’t count. People can skip a race and leave it blank.

Elections canvassing boards in each county end up reviewing unusual ballot markings and are left to decipher voter intent. If they’re unable to figure it out, the vote isn’t counted.

Election Day

Neighborhood polling places are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Election Day, March 10.

Anyone who is in line at 7 p.m. is allowed to vote.

People must vote in their assigned polling place on Election Day.

Someone must have a current, valid photo ID with a signature. The most common are Florida driver’s licenses or state ID cards.

Many other forms of ID, including passports, are accepted. If the photo ID doesn’t have a voter’s signature, the person will have to show another ID with a signature.

Dates & deadlines

In-person early voting: Not available for March local elections.

Return mail ballots: 7 p.m. March 10. Postmarks don’t count.

Election Day: March 10. Neighborhood polling stations are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Information

People can check to see if they’re registered to vote, request mail ballots and check their status, and find locations of polling places online and by phone.

Broward County: www.browardvotes.gov, 954-357-8683.

Palm Beach County: www.votepalmbeach.gov, 561-656-6200.

Mistah Lee’s Smokin’ Good BBQ, 8240 State Road 7, Suite 250, Boynton Beach: Pitmaster Lee Stransky’s ’cue shack, known for beef brisket, house-brined pastrami, cornbread slathered in “sticky” sauce and a big accolade — its food truck won top honors in the Sun Sentinel’s Best of South Florida Dining series — announced on social media that his first brick-and-mortar had closed. CLOSED: Jan. 8, per Facebook page.

Angelo Elia Pizza, Bar, Tapas, 5920 Coral Ridge Drive, Coral Springs. After 11-plus years in the Sawgrass Center shopping plaza near Heron Bay, restaurateur Angelo Elia’s namesake casual space known for paninis, pies and grilled artichoke hearts, has closed, joining a Weston location that also shut in 2025. CLOSED: Dec. 18, per website and restaurateur Eddie Pozzuoli, who said he plans to replace it with Ember & Vine this summer.

The Hen and The Hog Smokehouse Cantina, 14 N. Federal Highway, Pompano Beach: This 3,000-square-foot Mexican-barbecue cantina came from the people behind The Hen and The Hog all-day Southern bruncheries. Here, brisket nachos, shrimp and grits, smoked brisket melts and pulled pork sandwiches starred alongside tacos, fajitas and chicken burritos. CLOSED: Jan. 5, due to “significant staffing issues,” co-owner George Abbondante said.

La Torretta Italian Grill, 308 Indian Trace, Weston: Fabrizio and Vita Russo’s longtime eatery served veal francese, baked ziti, pasta e fagioli and chicken parmesan, presiding over weddings and funerals, graduations and bar mitzvahs for 34 years in a sumptuously red-bricked dining space older than the city of Weston itself. CLOSED: Jan. 11 to avoid “dramatic” rent increase from landlord, per manager Martha Vasalo.

Vivace Italian Restaurant & Cocktail Bar, 9763 W. Broward Blvd., Plantation: This upscale sit-down owned by Vito and Santina DiSalvo, known for NY-style pizza, Italian American classics, global wines and craft beers, has permanently closed after 10 years, after declaring Chapter 11 bankruptcy in September. CLOSED: Dec. 20, owners confirmed via their website and social media.

Drip Coffee, 6317 N. Andrews Ave., Fort Lauderdale: This cafe lasted all of three months in the Cypress Creek Station plaza, serving specialty espressos (like Burnt Ritual, a matcha latte with toasted marshmallow cold foam), avocado toast and sourdough sandwiches. CLOSED: Jan. 2, citing construction issues in the surrounding shopping center, per an Instagram post.

Chez Vincent, 3312 NE 32nd St., Fort Lauderdale: Vincent Maurin — with his wife, Claire, and daughter/business partner Nastasia — opened this wine bar and French café in Fort Lauderdale’s Galt Ocean Mile luxe neighborhood in the summer of 2021. In addition to vino, Chez Vincent offered charcuterie platters, hot and cold sandwiches, and breakfast service with baguettes, croissants, and ham and cheese plates. CLOSED: This winter; sale of the space closed on Feb. 2, according to a real estate executive.

Milk Money Bar & Kitchen, 815 NE 13th St., Fort Lauderdale: This anchor of the shopping/dining/entertainment enclave of Northeast 13th Street became a buzzy eatery (and a brunch fave) when Kimberly Wong, Blaise McMackin and Scott Ojeda opened back in 2018 in a space shared with Warsaw Coffee Co. “We continue to miss our staff, our neighbors, our friends and our customers very much,” Wong told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. CLOSED: Dec. 22, according to Wong.

Mykonos, 305 S. Andrews Ave., Fort Lauderdale: This sleekly modern Mediterranean sit-down from the Breakwater Hospitality Group (The Wharf Fort Lauderdale) that served Turkish beef dumplings and hummus, Chilean sea bass and chicken shish kebab has closed after less than a year in business. Online reservations on the website redirect to a new Greek restaurant named Santorini by Georgios. CLOSED: Late January

The Den Sports Bar & Lounge, 201 SW Second St., Fort Lauderdale: Originally dubbed Den Kitchen & Bar when owner Yaser Dashoush opened it in early 2021, this gastropub and party nightclub in the heart of Himmarshee’s drinking district has closed after five years in business. It served fare such as wings, grilled pork chops and burgers. CLOSED: Mid-January, with website, phone and social media accounts now deactivated.

“It was July,” he recalled. “It was very warm in the [rail] car. There was a pungent odor in the car. You couldn’t see out the windows. The windows were all fogged up. There was a fellow in a hospital gown sitting on the end of the platform.”

Later, Dech would find the existing 18 stations in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties — from north of West Palm Beach to Miami International Airport  — “were in need of real TLC.” The rail corridor that Tri-Rail shares with Amtrak and the CSX freight railroad west of Interstate 95 was lined with trash and homeless camps.

These days, the outgoing executive told the South Florida Sun Sentinel, Tri-Rail is a rail line he’d “put up against any railroad in the country.”

“Over the last three years we’ve changed 850 windows. We’ve replaced air conditioning — sometimes more than once on the cars,” he said. “We have cleaners at both ends. Top to bottom on the railroad we’ve cleaned the garbage out and worked with the counties on relocating homeless camps.

“Today the cars ride better. They’re not perfect. They’re old. We re-wrapped them, we changed the windows, we changed the air conditioners, we replaced the bathrooms in the cab cars.

“I’m just exceptionally proud of the efforts between our team and our contractors to really turn this railroad and make it into where I think I can put this railroad up against any railroad in the country,” he said. “It’s a good-looking railroad. It’s clean. Stations are cleaner, we’ve increased security, we’ve increased fare collections.”

Tri-Rail also completed an extension project that allows regional rail riders to travel to and from downtown Miami at Brightline’s MiamiCentral station.

“We’re in a good place,” Dech said on Thursday, after saluting the start of the rail authority’s first Transit Oriented Development project called Link at Boca, adjacent to Tri-Rail’s station in Boca Raton.

Two SFRTA board members have told the Sun Sentinel that a national search is likely for Dech’s replacement. An interim appointee will be named to fill the post immediately after Dech departs in March.

Dech is leaving for a new job to run a 90-mile commuter line that serves a string of cities from South Bend, Ind., to Chicago. His resignation is set for mid-March. The move, Dech said, will position him to maximize his railroad retirement benefits.

“I’m not going to better weather, that’s for sure,” he said. “This opportunity came up and they don’t come up often.”

In fact, there are only 28 commuter rail systems in the U.S., according to Tri-Rail’s website. And the “South Shore” line operated by the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District is one with which Dech, an Ohio native, became familiar as an engineer for CSX.

“Up there — that’s where I started running trains,” Dech said.

In the meantime, he has continued to spearhead Tri-Rail’s lobbying effort in Tallahassee to restore a muli-million dollar annual subsidy cut by the state last year, a move that left Tri-Rail with the prospect of running out of money by the summer of 2027.

“I feel really good with the conversations I’ve been having in the counties and the state level,” Dech said. “We’re really in as good a place as we can possibly be going forward.”

Started in January 1989 as a public utility to ease burgeoning traffic on I-95, Tri-Rail operates mostly on subsidies from the state and the three counties it serves.

A veteran of the giant CSX freight railroad and a transit system in Austin, Texas, Dech joined Tri-Rail and embarked on multiple tasks that included activating the extension to downtown Miami, and literally cleaning up a railroad operation not known for stellar customer service.

Last year, his third full year, Tri-Rail served more than 4.5 million passengers, a system record.

During his visits to state lawmakers, he’s made that figure a top-of-mind point while walking the halls of the Legislature. The railroad has also signed a deal for seven new locomotives, and intends to replace “about a third of our coaches.”

“The reception in Tallahassee for us has been warm,” he said. “There is very strong support from elected officials in this area. There is active support in Tallahassee. I don’t know what’s said behind closed doors. From what I see there is great support for rail in Florida.”

Value proposition

The trash and aging rail cars and engines aside, Tri-Rail’s reputation as a reliable mode of inter-county transportation has not always been favorable among the millions of commuters who cross over county lines.

“I think once people come down and understand we had 4.5 million people ride this train last year, and when you start thinking about that, you start putting it in perspective,” Dech said, “You really have to sit on I-95 and then come over here and ride the train to understand the real value.”

He asserted that elected officials who have ridden the train ride it again.

“They’re advocates,” he said. “I don’t think there is any more room to expand I-95, so you’ve got to do something. The answer is to put more people on the train.”

But many critics have argued that trains that do not turn a profit probably shouldn’t run at all.

“That’s a misconception nationwide — not just the public here,” Dech said. “I’ve heard people say if they can’t pay for themselves don’t run it. That would eliminate 99.9% of the railroads in the world. Because there is not a public railroad — a passenger railroad —  in the world outside of, probably, Japan that turns a profit.

“They’re all subsidized by the government — it’s just a matter of at what level,” Dech added. “When you look at police and fire departments and utilities like that, they’re not expected to make a profit. But they are necessary. This is a necessary product that we have here.”

Acting like a business

Still, the critics’ arguments were not lost on either Dech or the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority board, which consists of elected local politicians from each county, as well as private sector and community leaders.

Since last year, they have opted to find ways to show the Florida Department of Transportation and county governments that Tri-Rail is capable of acting like a business with an eye toward easing costs to the taxpayer.

Among other things, Tri-Rail cut service that was sparsely used, such as late-night trains to and from the Miami airport. The board also voted to end rideshare partnerships that it determined had delivered nominal numbers of passengers to and from Tri-Rail stations.

On the revenue side, the board this month will be weighing ticket price increases for fares that have not been raised since 2019.

As for Thursday’s groundbreaking of the “Link at Boca,” a mixed-use development at Tri-Rail’s station in Boca Raton, Dech acknowledged the revenue flow in leasing dollars to Tri-Rail will be helpful.

“It’s not going to hurt,” he said. “We’ll get rents from this for the next 99 years. The people who live here will have very quick and easy access to the station.”

Moreover, the retail element of the project “makes it a destination.”

“It’s going to be one more reason to use the train,” Dech said. “Individually these [projects] are small slices. But when you start putting them together … Boynton Beach will probably be next. We have some properties down south.”

“We want to demonstrate to everybody we are willing and able to get these things done,” he added. “I don’t think you are going to be able to strictly fund the railroad on TODs.”

But the greater SFRTA goal, he said, is to ease the expenses covered by the local and state governments.

“What we can do is have cost sharing between the state and the counties,” he said. “Our job now is to try to generate as much as we can to lessen the burden on the counties and the state.”

“Every bit that we can do, whether it be advertising, whether it be rents and TODs [Transit Oriented Development] … makes it easier for them,” he said. “We feel like we have skin in the game as well.”

The ultimate bottom line

Even if a daily motorist has no intention of riding a train or a bus, Dech said, “you want every person around you to ride that bus or train.”

“I don’t think anyone wants to see an additional 4.5 million people on I-95,” he added. “I hope we don’t play chicken long enough to get there. That would be horrible for everybody.”

“This is a really rare occasion where our success benefits everybody,” he added.

Full circle

In Indiana, Dech expects to face familiar issues akin to an aging railroad.

“We’re going to start working on new equipment,” he said.

There will be trips to Indianapolis, the state capital, to lobby for funds for a rail operation whose heritage can be traced to the early 1900s.

“It‘s a little romantic for me to kind of take it full circle and finish off where I started,” he said.

But there will be something new for Dech to learn. Along the South Shore Line, the trains are powered by electric engines.

And that’s a good thing because it’s important to get the romantic dinner thing right.

To help you out, here are our top five fabulous foodie “must-dines” that will make Feb. 14 special. These selections, spanning Broward and Palm Beach counties, offer different price points and are sure to get an arrow of approval from Cupid himself.

Keep in mind that prices do not include taxes or gratuities.

Galley at Hilton West Palm Beach

600 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach; 561-231-6000; hiltonwestpalmbeach.com

Tucked within the Hilton hotel in the heart of downtown West Palm Beach, Galley will serve a four-course prix fixe menu and Champagne toast on Feb. 14 from 5 to 10 p.m. At $145 per person, this menu option will include an amuse-bouche of Spice Crab Puri Puri or Beef Carpaccio; a salad choice of Charred Figs or Lemon Poppy Seed Stracciatella, an entree of Acquerello Risotto di Mare or 30-Day Dry-Aged Ribeye (14-ounce), and a dessert selection of Triple Chocolate Cake or Raspberry Coconut Cremoso.

By the way, there’s another Cupidy special going on at the Hilton. From 5 to 10 p.m. Feb.13-14, Moody Tongue Sushi — a Michelin-recommended eatery — will offer an omakase artistry/craft beer dinner pairing featuring 13 courses for $215 a person and starting off with a Framboise (Belgian fruit lambic beer) followed by dishes such as Botan Ebi with Ossetra caviar, Toro with cherry niçoise, A5 Miyazaki Wagyu, Hokkaido Uni and more.

Gary Rack’s Farmhouse Kitchen

399 SE Mizner Blvd., Boca Raton; 561-826-2625
204 E. Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach; 561-266-3642
farmhousekitchenboca.com

Chef Demetrio Zavala — culinary director at Gary Rack’s and a multichampion of Food Network’s “Chopped” — is planning a three-course Valentine’s menu of specials served from Feb. 12-15.

Start with a Beet and Citrus Salad with whipped ricotta, arugula and toasted almonds ($21).

The choice of entrees includes a 12-ounce N.Y. Strip Oscar with jumbo lump crab and porcini demi, cream spinach puree, whipped potatoes and béarnaise sauce ($55) or a Roasted Branzino with lemon-scented white bean purée, white beans, baby kale, vinaigrette and garlic ($44).

The “feed-each-other finale” dessert options include Flourless Chocolate Cake ($19), Apple Gooey Butter Cake ($19), Monster Carrot Cake ($26) and Key Lime Crème Brûlée ($12).

Ladies, start off with a free glass of prosecco. Specialty Valentine’s Day cocktails ($17) include The Honey Do (Milagro Reposado tequila with Cointreau, orange juice, honey, cinnamon, lemon and a cinnamon-dashed orange slice) or the Love @ 1st Sip (vodka, strawberry puree, angostura bitters, honey and a strawberry slice).

Calusso at Pier Sixty-Six

2301 SE 17th St., Fort Lauderdale; 754-318-6997; calussorestaurant.com

Romantic movies are the inspiration for a five-course meal planned Feb. 13-14 at this restaurant within Fort Lauderdale’s renovated Pier Sixty Six.

The Valentine’s Day tasting menu ($195 a person) will feature Bluefin Tuna with Strawberry and Kaluga caviar (“Lady & the Tramp”), Eggplant Zaalouk with Jamón Ibérico (“Fifty Shades of Grey”), Squid Ink Tagliolini with Blue Crab and Sea Urchin (“Casablanca”), Westholme Wagyu Filet with Crispy Beet Pavé and Beetroot Bordelaise (“Beauty and the Beast”), and Chocolate Raspberry dessert finished with gold (“Moulin Rouge!”).

There will be wine pairings, ranging in price from $150 to $275, and the restaurant, known for its French and Italian rivieras cuisine, will have a pianist playing classic film scores.

Banana Boat

739 E. Ocean Ave., Boynton Beach; 561-732-9400; bananaboatboynton.com

This waterfront dining spot will have the following chef-curated specials: Pan Seared Scallops ($18), Chicken Florentine ($24), Shrimp and Maine Lobster Risotto ($38) and Chocolate Mousse Cannoli ($12). That’s in addition to the regular menu and live music.

There will also be two Valentine’s Day craft cocktail specials ($15): Cupid’s Key with Stoli Vanilla, Liquor 43, coconut puree, raspberry puree and graham cracker rim; and Emily’s Kiss with Skyy Cherry, rosé prosecco and grenadine, topped with Sprite.

California Pizza Kitchen

2301 N. Federal Highway, Fort Lauderdale; 954-565-1196
10300 Forest Hill Blvd. (The Mall at Wellington Green), Wellington; 561-793-1601
3101 PGA Blvd. (The Gardens Mall), Palm Beach Gardens; 561-625-4682
cpk.com

Looking for something a little more casual? All week long, from Feb. 9-15, CPK locations will bring back their heart-shaped pizzas and “Sweet Deal for Two” (starting at $60), which includes a three-course meal created for sharing.

The special offers one starter (Spinach Artichoke Dip or Lettuce Wraps with Chicken), two entrees and one dessert (Butter Cake, Churro Swirl or Upside Down Cheesecake). Entrees include thin-crust heart-shaped pies such as The Original BBQ Chicken Pizza, Hawaiian, Mushroom Pepperoni Sausage and Sicilian.

You can also order heart-shaped pizzas individually for an additional $1.75 above the standard price, with pizzas starting at $18.49.

Dech, who has been executive director of the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority since 2022, resigned the post effective March 16 after accepting an offer as president of a commuter rail line in Indiana.

In a telephone interview Thursday, Broward County Commissioner Lamar Fisher, who serves on the SFRTA board, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel the resignation was not a surprise to the 10-member board as Dech informed them earlier this month he was in talks to become president and general manager of the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District.  The line’s trains serve a 90-mile stretch on the south shore of Lake Michigan between the Michiana Regional Airport in South Bend, Indiana, and Randolph Street Station in Chicago, according to its website.

“Mr. Dech called us a week ago,” Fisher said, adding the executive director “wanted to call each board member personally.”

Dech is out of the office this week and unavailable for comment, a spokesman said.

“His main reason behind it was that it’s a family matter, and I couldn’t argue with that at all,” Fisher said. “His knowledge and expertise was parallel to none in this industry. I’m sure we will find a replacement to carry it on, and he will be sorely missed.”

One of the key contributions Dech made was his leadership in rallying support among state legislators to restore millions in subsidies that are critical to Tri-Rail’s operation. Dech has said the cuts placed the railroad, a public utility that relies heavily on county, state and federal funds, on a path where it would run out of money by mid-2027.

Although slightly shorter in length than the Indiana line at 73.5 miles, Tri-Rail served a record 4.5 million passengers last year among 19 stops in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties. Last week, Dech told the authority’s board that he was “encouraged” by the responses in Tallahassee to Tri-Rail’s pitch for funding.

Fisher said he did not believe Dech’s departure would hinder the lobbying effort. Besides Dech, SFRTA chair and Palm Beach County Vice Mayor Marci Woodward and others have been visiting legislators in Tallahassee.

“David was the leader but we have a tremendous team behind him,” Fisher said. “David has felt all along it will be a positive outcome. We will keep that momentum going.”

“The need is there and we are confident we will get the funding back in place to continue this great service,” Fisher said.

Search forthcoming

As for a search for a replacement, Fisher said, “we’ll decide that as a board at our coming board meeting in February.” The meeting is scheduled for Feb. 27.

“We’ll need to put someone in during the interim,” Fisher said. He said his personal vote would go to Diane Hernandez Del Calvo, the deputy executive director whose Tri-Rail career spans nearly 27 years.

“She’s very knowledgeable and she could very well be our selection,” Fisher said. “It’s up to the board [to have] that conversation.”

Woodward said in a separate interview Thursday that she expects the selection of a permanent successor would not occur until after the Tri-Rail funds cut by the Florida Department of Transportation are restored, thereby giving candidates a sense of confidence that the railroad would have sufficient financial support.

“I think we all realize that’s going to be delayed until we get the funding restored,” Woodward said.

“We don’t know how long this [legislative] session is going to last,” she said, adding that she “wouldn’t blame anyone to be hesitant.”

She agreed with Fisher’s view that an internal candidate would likely be selected to run Tri-Rail in the interim and that Hernandez Del Calvo could be that person.

“She’s always right beside Dave all the time,” Woodward said. “We would feel pretty comfortable with her taking the reins for now.”

Service, ridership growth

Dech started working at Tri-Rail in August 2022, bringing with him a reputation as a detail-oriented executive who was vice president of operations at Capital Metro, the mass transit system in Austin, Texas.

His immediate task at Tri-Rail was to complete a project to expand service into downtown Miami at the MiamiCentral station now shared with Brightline. Passengers can get there by using an 8-mile extension controlled by the Florida East Coast Railway from Tri-Rail’s main line.

Among Dech’s other accomplishments, according to Tri-Rail:

• Increased weekday trains from 50 to 76 and weekend trains from 30 to 53.
• Introduced Tri-Rail express service between West Palm Beach and MiamiCentral, reducing travel time by more than 30 minutes.
• Achieved full ridership recovery post-pandemic, with Tri-Rail reaching 4.4 million riders in 2024 and more than 4.5 million rides in calendar year 2025, the highest in system history.
• Set new weekend and special-event ridership records with highest Saturday during Tri-Rail’s 2024 Rail Fun Day and Lake Worth Beach Street Painting Festival, and highest Sunday during Ultra Music 2024, with special train service added to accommodate concertgoers.

Dech, who is executive director of Tri-Rail’s governing body, the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority, stunned his staff with a phone call from Tallahassee announcing his resignation Monday, spokesman Victor Garcia said Wednesday.

His new position: president and general manager of the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District. His hiring becomes effective March 16, according to The Post-Tribune of Northwest Indiana, which first reported the leadership change.

Garcia said the staff expected an update on Tri-Rail’s efforts to close a funding gap in Tallahassee after the Florida Department of Transportation slashed its annual subsidy last year. But they received news of Dech’s career change instead.

“He did say he feels confident this is going to be worked out,” Garcia said.

There was no public indication Dech had been interviewing for another job.

As recently as last week, Dech, who was not immediately available for comment late Wednesday, was focused on telling Tri-Rail’s story to Florida lawmakers and making the railroad’s case for additional funds.

At a Friday SFRTA board meeting, he said he was encouraged with how state lawmakers had received Tri-Rail’s pitch.

Veteran railroader

Dech joined Tri-Rail in 2022 from a transit agency in Austin, Texas. He is an Ohio native with 29 years of railroad experience, including time as an engineer with the giant CSX freight line. He’ll be the Indiana line’s third president.

Dech has forecast that Tri-Rail, which has served Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties since 1989, will run out of funds by June 2027 without additional contributions from the three counties the railroad serves and/or the FDOT.

Among other things, he is credited with completing a stalled project to link Tri-Rail with Brightline’s MiamiCentral station in downtown Miami. He also worked to make Tri-Rail safer, installing more protection measures at grade crossings, eliminating homeless camps along the Tri-Rail corridor west of Interstate 95, and setting the stage to acquire locomotives and passenger coaches.

Last year, Tri-Rail set ridership records, carrying more than 4.5 million passengers in 2025.

Garcia said he had no immediate information on how the SFRTA board will proceed to replace Dech, but it is likely a national search will be conducted for a new top executive.

Starting Friday, Jan. 30, guests can climb aboard a lifeboat to experience the historic ship’s final moments — and watch from a passenger’s perspective, floating in the dark waters on a star-filled, bitterly cold night, as distress signals were being sent and Titanic disappeared into the ocean.

The experience is called “Titanic: An Immersive Voyage,” and it will be available through Tuesday, March 31, at the South Florida PBS Studios in Boynton Beach.

Guests may know the facts already — that the so-called “unsinkable” ship struck an iceberg and sank in the early morning hours of April 15, 1912, killing more than 1,500 people during its maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City.

But this immersive experience offers an opportunity to take a trip through history: To learn about the ship with 3D views, video animations, life-sized reconstructions and narrative storytelling; view artifacts; and use virtual reality to go 2.5 miles below sea level in a deep-sea submersible to see the wreck site.

Titanic’s sister and rescue ships also get a featured spot in the multisensory journey, which takes from 45 to 90 minutes to complete.

Fans of James Cameron’s 1997 “Titanic” movie can even pose as passengers in an artificial intelligence photo booth to recreate the “I’m flying” scene between Jack and Rose on the ship’s bow.

This is the third immersive experience presented at South Florida PBS Studios, following presentations on Leonardo Da Vinci and Egyptian pharaohs.

Below, we obtained more details during a Q&A session with Jeneissy Azcuy, chief marketing and education officer with South Florida PBS, that’s been edited for length and clarity.

Q: How did South Florida PBS find out about this experience and bring it here? 

A: Exhibition Hub [based in Atlanta] created the experience. We discovered it at last year’s PBS Annual Meeting, where several staff members were invited to visit the immersive experience and came away impressed. Knowing that PBS had produced excellent programming about the Titanic, with a new documentary from American Public Television scheduled for spring 2026, we saw an opportunity to bring the experience to South Florida. Our research also revealed a compelling local connection — several Titanic passengers had ties to South Florida, making it especially relevant for our community.

Q: Why is it important to learn about Titanic and keep its history alive, especially in an interactive way?

A: The Titanic represents far more than a maritime disaster. It is a profound human story that offers timeless lessons about hubris, class divisions, heroism and tragedy. By keeping this history alive through interactive experiences, we ensure that new generations connect emotionally with these lessons in ways that textbooks simply cannot achieve.

An immersive approach transforms the Titanic from a distant historical event into a visceral, personal experience. When you’re standing on a replica of the bow, sitting in a lifeboat or exploring the wreckage through VR [virtual reality], the 1,500 lives lost become real people, not just statistics. You begin to understand the human decisions, both wise and catastrophic, that led to that fateful night.

These interactive experiences also illuminate broader themes that remain relevant today: the dangers of overconfidence in technology and the life-and-death consequences of ignored warnings. By engaging with this history in such an immersive way, visitors don’t just learn facts, they develop empathy, critical thinking, and a deeper appreciation for how individual choices and societal structures can shape tragic outcomes. It’s this emotional connection that ensures the lessons of the Titanic continue to resonate and inform how we approach challenges in our own time.

Q: How is the virtual reality experience?

A: The VR aspect of “Titanic: An Immersive Voyage” is truly extraordinary. It takes you on a breathtaking journey to the ocean floor, where you encounter the haunting wreckage of the Titanic resting in the deep. As you explore the sunken vessel, you can observe the ship’s remains in stunning detail before the experience transitions, bringing you back in time to April 14, 1912. Suddenly, you’re aboard the magnificent ship itself, witnessing the tragic events of that fateful night unfold around you.

Q: What is your favorite part of the exhibit?

A: My favorite part is the immersive show, particularly the experience of sitting in the lifeboat. From that vantage point, you’re drawn into the unfolding drama as you learn about the critical messages being transmitted, some received, some tragically ignored. The experience weaves together the rich history of the ship, its crew and passengers, building a deeper understanding of life aboard the Titanic. Then, as the narrative progresses, you witness the heartbreaking sequence of events leading to its catastrophic end. There’s something profoundly moving about experiencing this history while seated in a lifeboat, which adds an emotional weight and sense of immediacy that makes the story feel incredibly real and personal.

Q: “Titanic” overlaps with the “Egyptian Pharaohs: From Cheops to Ramses II” immersive experience on display through Sunday, March 29. How do you fit each exhibit into the facility?

A: We’ve successfully separated the two experiences by utilizing different sections of our substantially expanded campus. Our recently opened, state-of-the-art Cornelia T. Bailey Cultural Arts Center, an 8,000-square-foot facility, hosts portions of the “Egyptian Pharaohs” experience across its immersive dome, Taylor Performance Hall and Innovation Lab. Our 4,000-square-foot immersive studio hosts the “Egyptian Pharaohs” immersive show.

For “Titanic,” we’ve transformed office space into a museum-style gallery featuring authentic Titanic artifacts, a replica of the ship’s bow for photo opportunities and the VR experience. The immersive voyage itself takes place in one of our studios, complete with a lifeboat where visitors can sit for added realism.

Each experience has its own dedicated entrance: Guests access “Egyptian Pharaohs” through the Bailey Cultural Arts Center, while “Titanic: An Immersive Voyage” is entered through the back of the South Florida PBS Studios.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: “Titanic: An Immersive Voyage”

WHEN: Jan. 30-March 31

WHERE: South Florida PBS Studios, 3401 S. Congress Ave., Boynton Beach

COST: $45 for adults; $35 for seniors, students, military and first responders; and free for guests age 12 and younger (not recommended for children younger than 5)

INFORMATION: southfloridapbs.org/titanic/

No hard dollar amounts were proposed. But Tri-Rail’s fares — between their rock-bottom levels and a convoluted zone system —  have been a nettlesome issue for a management that has been traveling over dual tracks during the past year: Working to restore some or all of a state subsidy that was dramatically cut for operations, while positioning the three-county rail line for the long-term future.

During a presentation on Friday to the board of the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority, Deputy Executive Director Diane Hernandez del Calvo disclosed that the average fare collected by the rail line is a paltry $3.24. That’s far below the double-digit fares collected by the high-speed Brightline railroad, which offers passengers higher levels of onboard amenities and faster rides among five South Florida cities.

Del Calvo said the low fares are due largely to discount programs and the absence of any increases in years. Tri-Rail has not hiked its fares since 2019, she said.

During Friday’s discussion, Raquel Regalado, a Miami-Dade County commissioner and a transportation authority board member, said she would like to see the number of zones cut from six to two. Others agreed.

The board expects to receive some options for how much fares should be raised and how the zone system should be re-aligned by its next meeting in February.

Building for the future, scraping for money

After the meeting, veteran railroad executive David Dech, who was hired four years ago to be executive director of the transportation authority, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel that he has received a number of positive responses from lawmakers as he walked the halls of legislative offices in Tallahassee over the last two weeks in a bid to restore state cuts to the railroad’s annual allocation.

Last year, the Florida Department of Transportation thrust the rail operation into financial uncertainty by slashing millions from its annual contribution to Tri-Rail.

Instead of contributing a statutory minimum of $42.1 million — and as much as $62 million annually as it has in the past — the agency informed the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority that the new figure would  be $15 million starting with the 2025-26 fiscal year, which started last July. In the interim, the line has been dipping into dwindling reserves to prop up a $150 million budget. The three counties Tri-Rail serves also contribute annual subsidies of $4 million to go along with the fares paid by riders.

With no action, Tri-Rail is likely to run out of cash by June 2027, Dech has said.

“It’s a dance. We’re still in the same position. We have money through June of 2027,” Dech said in an interview at Tri-Rail headquarters in Pompano Beach. “I remain very encouraged by the tone of the conversations that we’re having in Tallahassee as well as with the counties. That gives me the optimism to go and start looking at long-term investments.”

While the subsidy question is pending in the Legislature, key improvement projects at the railroad remain on hold. They include:

• Northern Layover Facility: A new light maintenance operation near Mangonia Park, which is the northernmost stop for Tri-Rail after West Palm Beach. Besides repairs, it would allow the railroad to engage in overnight cleaning of coaches, and provide crew and training rooms. The current facility is near residential neighborhoods whose occupants consistently hear noise generated by Tri-Rail.
• Improvements at all 19 of Tri-Rail’s stations in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties.
• Elevator replacements and upgrades at the stations.

“Those are the big projects on hold right now,” Dech said. “I think over the next several months I expect we’re going to be able to start seeing some real movement on funding and be able to start moving some of these projects forward.”

Both the Tri-Rail board and management have been uniform in their approach to the Legislature since the funds were cut last year: Demonstrate that the railroad can operate as a business and is therefore deserving of a continued flow of public dollars from the state and the three counties it serves.

As a show of good faith, Tri-Rail curtailed most of its ride-partnership programs with Uber, Lyft and traditional taxi services at the close of 2025.

And Dech, with FDOT support, implemented safety improvements at railroad crossings and cleared away homeless camps along the rail corridor.

In the meantime, the rail line has ordered seven new diesel-electric locomotives from Siemens Mobility. They will be ready to roll by 2029 and equipped to serve the MiamiCentral station.

“With the addition of seven new locomotives, Tri-Rail will enhance its current aging fleet, introducing equipment designed to enhance the passenger experience with modern features while improving the reliability of daily service,” the railroad said in a recent statement.

The engines are being funded by grant money from the Federal Transit Administration.

Why order equipment for 2029 when operating cash might stop flowing in mid-2027?

“We lose the opportunity [for federal funds] if we don’t do it,” said Tri-Rail spokesman Victor Garcia. “The hope is this is going to get fixed and the trains are running.”

Tri-Rail also intends to upgrade passenger coaches and cab cars over time. It is piggybacking on an order with Chicago Metro, which assigned Tri-Rail some of its options with a manufacturer, Dech said.

The reception

During the Friday board meeting and in the Sun Sentinel interview, Dech said he’s received a universal “positive tone” from state lawmakers.

“I’m not going to put words in politicians’ mouths,” he said. “I know better than that. I would say that when we walked the halls up there we’ve had a very good reception. People understand who we are. People understand what we’ve been doing. People understand our ridership. People understand how important we are to the region.”

Last year’s record ridership figures have helped.

Earlier this month, Tri-Rail, which started operating more than three decades ago, announced it carried more than 4.5 million customers along its 73.1-mile line that runs mainly west of Interstate 95. The tally included passengers who rode the 8-mile segment from the main line over a Florida East Coast Railway spur into the MiamiCentral station that Tri-Rail shares with Brightline in downtown Miami.

“I will say that one of the first things that came out of people’s mouths when we walked into their offices is talking about our ridership and the ridership growth and the ridership record,” Dech said. “That has resonated with folks — not only are we sustaining and we’re among the national leaders in ridership recovery — we’re breaking our own records. That’s a big deal.”

Dech, though, declined to say how much money he is seeking.

“I am absolutely not going to talk about numbers,” he said. “I am negotiating. I’m not negotiating in the newspaper. I have never found that to be a good strategy.”

“I have an ask. Other people have a counter. And we’ll get there,” Dech added. “The good news is that everywhere I go, nobody’s walking around saying ‘no, just shut it down.’ I haven’t heard that once. I’ve talked to a lot of people who are, to a person, very supportive.”