Police find no evidence that Meghan Markle's half-sister was involved in a car accident involving paparazzi
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Previous reports that Meghan Markle’s half-sister, Samantha Grant, was hospitalized with a broken ankle after a car accident involving a paparazzi remain unsubstantiated by police.
As previously reported, Grant’s boyfriend Mark Phillips told TMZ Wednesday that an alleged “paparazzi confrontation” forced them to swerve their car into a concrete barrier near a toll booth in Florida. The embattled half-sister of the soon-to-be wife of Prince Harry even shared an image of her in the hospital.
However, police in Florida tell Fox News that they’ve been unable to find any record of such an event taking place despite citizens being legally obligated to call 911 in the event of a car accident in which there was property damage.
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Lieutenant Kim Montes, a spokeswoman for Florida Highway Patrol Troop D, told Fox News that her office checked five different troops stretching from Tampa to Jacksonville and found no evidence of a crash or any report indicating that Grant and Phillips’ story actually took place. She even coordinated with Michelle Guido, spokesperson from Orlando Police Department, who also came up with nothing in terms of proving the story Grant detailed to TMZ was true.
Montes notes that while there is very little chance that the agencies contacted would be unaware of this event if it took place, it’s not completely outside the realm of possibility. She notes that the detail of the crash taking place near a toll booth, however, helped narrow the investigation significantly as there’s only so many roads that fit that description. There have been no reports of damage to a concrete barrier.
It’s worth noting that, in the event the story is true and Phillips and Grant failed to contact police, they could face 2nd degree misdemeanor charges for property damage. This crime carries with it fines as well as a potential 60 day jail sentence.
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'We looked for three hours last night. She lives in Ocala but there's no toll roads in Ocala. 'The nearest toll road would be the turnpike so we checked the turnpike, we checked I4, we checked all these other roads,' Lt Montes told Daily Mail. 'We checked by her name, we checked by his name and we didn't find any reports. So we don't know if this actually happened.
Montes told Fox News that because no report has been filed and no evidence of the event has been found, there’s no justification for them to open an investigation into Grant’s claims at this time.
Fox News' Stephanie Nolasco contributed to this report.