Florida man arrested outside Taco Bell with fish, facing exposure charge

A Taco Bell shift in Palm Coast turned into a police call after employees reported a man acting suspiciously near a side door, only to have deputies find him outside the restaurant with his pants pulled down and a live beta fish tucked in his backpack.

Flagler County sheriff’s deputies responded shortly before 1 a.m. on Thursday, May 28, 2026, at the Taco Bell on State Road 100. Later reporting identified the suspect as 28-year-old Brandon Irizarry. When deputies arrived, Irizarry was still outside the building, and authorities said he started covering himself as law enforcement approached.

After the arrest, deputies found a live beta fish in a plastic container inside Irizarry’s backpack. Some reports said the fish was named Baja Blast, a detail that helped turn an already strange incident into an online sensation. The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office also used a joking “chimichanga out” description in its account of the arrest, a line that spread quickly because it mixed fast-food shorthand with a public indecency call.

For Taco Bell workers, the incident is a reminder that late-night safety concerns do not always start with violence. Sometimes they begin with one person lingering near a side door, acting off, and forcing a crew to decide fast whether the situation is just unusual or something that needs law enforcement. In a store with a skeleton crew, drive-thru pressure, and back-of-house doors that cannot be ignored, the first move is to get staff attention, keep people away from the door, and let a manager or shift lead handle the call to deputies.

That is what happened here: employees flagged the behavior, deputies were sent, and the situation moved quickly from a suspicious person outside the store to an arrest. Irizarry was booked on an indecent exposure charge and held on a $5,000 bond at the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility.

For managers, the takeaway is simple. Document what staff saw, note the time and location, preserve any security footage, and make sure employees are protected while police handle the rest. In a restaurant that stays open late and sees heavy foot traffic, a weird moment at the side door can become a safety incident in seconds.