1 Florida County is Weirdest of Them All, Magazine Says

Earning a No. 1 ranking is generally a good thing, but Pasco County might not be touting one first-place honor anytime soon.

The daily web magazine Slate dubbed the county the weirdest in a state full of weird things back in 2013. That old article is making the rounds again on social media, bringing up a very important question:

Is Pasco the strangest place in the Sunshine State?

“I have to tell you that I think Ground Zero for Florida Weird is Pasco County, a semirural area just north of Tampa,” wrote author Craig Pittman.

While Pittman acknowledges strangeness all over the Sunshine State – Key West’s six-toed Hemingway cats, Miami’s Causeway Cannibal, the Lakeland Police Department’s sex scandal and the Panhandle’s rampage of self-maimings – Pasco takes the cake he said.

Citing such oddities as the runaway kangaroo that was tasered by police, and the county’s mafia, Klu Klux Klan, Wiccan, Satanist and nudist connections as evidence, he concluded there’s no place stranger in the land of the strange.

See Also:

• ‘Fugitive’ Kangaroo Captured in Pasco
• ‘Vicious and Very Bizarre’ Crime Lands Pasco Deputies on TV
• Weird Florida: Turtle Defense, Hunting Big Foot, Shoplifting a Chainsaw

While we’re not taking sides in Slate’s endorsement, Patch.com has covered its share of strange news out of Pasco County. There was a “zombie” arrest in Land O’ Lakes back in 2011, the Holiday chicken bone attack of 2013 and who could forget housewife-turned-porn-star murder case?

As Pitmann acknowledges, Pasco is home to lots of people who normally wouldn’t group together in a single place. Its nudist community, for example, is considered the largest in the world and has been going strong in the area for more than 70 years. Perhaps it’s that diversity that makes Pasco a special place to call home, or maybe it makes it weird? You decide!

Is Pasco the weirdest of the weird? Share your thoughts by commenting below.

Photo credit: A kangaroo had Pasco County deputies hopping back in 2013.