Here are our top 10 stories for 2014. The rankings are based on page views as shown by Google Analytics and JetPack Site Stats.
Please note we covered 2014 West Boca restaurant news in a story yesterday.
10. Jimmy the Greek Murdered
Our biggest story early in the year was the double-stabbing which led to the death of Dimitrios “Jimmy the Greek” Karaloukas by an employee. The alleged killer, Tilus Lebrun, was supposedly angry that his boss posted a picture of him on the internet.
Ironically this led to national media attention and Lebrun’s mugshot was posted all over the web including on the Huffington Post.
9. West Boca Lawyers Arrested for Fraud
Who knew lawyers getting arrested would be a popular story? In this case two local personal injury lawyers were accused of “fraud” having to do with supposedly improper methods of soliciting clients. We found it troubling that this would be treated as a felony or even as a crime at all.
8. Shooting at Oasis Night Club
Two victims were shot in July at a night club on the southwest corner of Palmetto and Powerline. We never learned the names of the victims, and as far as we know no one has been arrested. It was advertised as the biggest night in the club’s history.
7. Ninja Nightmare
Our restaurant inspection reports have been a hit among readers, accounting for nearly 100,000 page views this year. The Ninja Nightmare story focused on an East Boca sushi restaurant that was hit with a horrendous inspection including “mold-like growth” on egg noodles, and a stop-sale order due to “temperature abuse.” Other big inspection stories included:
April Restaurant Inspections (also a top 10 story by some measures)
Seven restaurants get warnings
Seven East Boca restaurants slammed
Ouch
6. Obituary of Debra Corona
A couple of obituaries drew a lot of attention. West Boca High teacher Debra Corona’s passing in November was the biggest. Earlier in the year Steve Brown also suffered an untimely death when his bicycle was hit on Lyons Road by a Century Village resident driving a minivan.
5. Seven Johns Busted in Publix Prostitution Sting
Proving sex sells, our story about the Sheriff’s sting at the Sandalfoot Publix was very popular. Seven men were arrested for soliciting an undercover deputy who posed as a prostitute. We later got video of one of the incidents.
Also popular was our Massage Arrests story.
4. Rollover Fatality
Earlier this month a morning rollover crash on 441 shut down northbound traffic in front of West Boca Medical Center. One of our friends was stuck in traffic for 90 minutes on what’s usually a 5-minute commute. We took some heat for this one from readers unhappy with our including a reader photo showing a body, though we felt it was important for readers to understand the importance of wearing your seatbelt. We discussed this in an editorial: Professional Journalism and Dead Bodies.
Sadly the driver passed away that afternoon.
Another accident near the same location involved a hit-and-run driver and three pedestrians. We’re still covering this one as the State’s Attorney was stalling but an arrest was finally made.
3. Car Split in Two
A wild crash on Palmetto Park Road on the west side of the Turnpike bridge led to a car hitting a tree and literally splitting into two pieces. As we understand it, the driver actually survived this one. He was wearing his seatbelt.
A head-on crash on 441 was also a big story but did not make the top 10.
2. Body Found in Loggers’ Run
In another sad story, a young man took his life in one of the Loggers’ Run neighborhoods. Because of the location, deputies ended up blocking off a section of Ponderosa Road for several hours. This story was criticized by many readers both for covering a suicide and for one of the photos showing a hint of the dead body.
We had a similar story involving a woman whose body was found in her Lexus among the trailers on the west end of Sandalfoot Blvd. That road was also blocked for several hours. As we understand it the death was ruled a homicide but no arrests have been made as of yet.
1. Boynton Psycho Alert
Our biggest story of the year wasn’t even in West Boca, but it was close and relevant. The son of the former mayor was the subject of a Boynton Beach police bulletin indicating that he posed a danger to area hospitals.
Readers loved it but we received substantial criticism from the Boynton Beach police media relations staff for “creating unreasonable fear in the public.” We still think this was an important story creating reasonable awareness.
We also did a follow-up on the story.
Honorable mentions
Halloween Happenings in West Boca was in the Top 10 on one method of rankings stories.
An unusual story we did back in April was actually the most read of the year, but it has nothing to do with West Boca. We were looking at our Analytics data and noticed some new traffic from l.facebook.com and lm.facebook.com. We covered the story before anyone else in the world and that has led to a steady stream of global readers.
Business stories:
Walmart’s reopening at Palmetto and 441 led to a number of stories. Saks Off 5th is coming to Somerset Shoppes.
A lot of readers wondered about all the construction at Glades and 441. We covered that extensively and are still on it.
We’ve been covering real estate for a while, writing about which houses sold by zip code. Our April/May story on 33428 was the biggest yet. We will be doing these more consistently in 2015 as we have finally locked down a permanent sponsor – this author passed the real estate exam a couple weeks ago and will sign with a broker shortly.
Gator stories:
9-foot-gator found in the Lakes at Boca Raton, just missed making the Top 10.
9-foot gator in Boca Winds
10-foot gator in Shores at Boca Raton
We’ve covered many lost and found pets on our Facebook page, and one of those stories was on our website as well.
Arrest stories are usually big, though these didn’t make the top 10:
Loggers Run Teacher Arrested was one of our biggest.
Wild West Boca Weekend featured a guy with great hair and a lingerie party girl.
Brazilian Belaire Burglary Threesome
3 Arrests in Sandalfoot SWAT Raid
West Boca High – Weapons Drugs and Minors
DUI & Drugs for West Boca Brothers
Olympic Heights Teen Flees
Maybe it’s self-centered but we think West Boca News is the biggest story of 2014 was a big year for us at West Boca News. We thank our readers for reading, sharing, liking, and commenting, even when the comments are critical. According to Google Analytics, over 450,000 people came to our website totaling just over a million “sessions” and 1.4 million page views. On Facebook we passed 10,000 Likes:
On Facebook our “engagement” is fantastic, far ahead of our local “competitors.” People click to read our stories, share, like and comment on them and that is important for continued growth.
We will work to continue delivering engaging content to our readers, focused as much as possible on that little rectangle west of Military Trail between Clint Moore and SW 18th. Thanks again to our readers.
