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Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Before there was West Palm Beach's Phillips Point, there was The Hut
As West Palm Beach's iconic Phillips Point high-rise undergoes a major facelift, newcomers to the area might be surprised to learn that the spot on Flagler Drive was once home to an even more iconic building of its era: a drive-in restaurant called The Hut. And for decades, it was one of the city's most popular hangouts. Palm Beacher Mimi Maddock McMakin told the Palm Beach Daily News in 2021 that in the 1960s, she and her best girlfriends would sneak away from slumber parties in their pajamas, to tool around town in her dad's white Cadillac, before heading over the Royal Park Bridge to West Palm Beach. 'There we'd be, these three young girls driving around late at night in a giant white Cadillac with red interior,' McMakin recalled. "Our destination was always the same: The Hut. Where else?' Carolyn Stroupe Stambaugh, who also grew up in Palm Beach and graduated in 1951, relished visiting The Hut in the late 1940s and early '50s. 'Whenever we weren't in school, The Hut was the gathering place.' Students from Palm Beach High School (now Dreyfoos School of the Arts) also gravitated to the spot, including soon-to-be budding celebrities George Hamilton and Burt Reynolds. "The Hut is where you went," Reynolds once recalled. "If you were lucky enough to have a friend with a car, you parked by some girls, your arm hanging out against the door so that it looked like you had a bicep." The Hall family opened the place in 1930, calling it The Tropical Hut. By 1937, under a new owner, The Hut was doing 90% of its business via "curb girls," who hustled out to parked cars or the patio. During World War II, The Hut's neon signage beckoned servicemen and women stationed in the area to its food stand, as Big Band music sounded over the jukebox. Cheese-covered hot dogs were 20 cents, and milkshakes were made from ice cream from the local Alfar Creamery. 'We'd pile into the car and my parents would take us — I was probably 8 or 9 — for barbecue and frosted root beer,' Palm Beacher David Reese told the Daily News about his 1940s Hut visits. 'Then, when I was in high school, everyone would go on Friday nights and we'd congregate for curb service in our cars,' Reese said. 'I had this great girlfriend with a car and one night, the guys on the football team picked up her car and turned it all the way around. We laughed, of course, and she kept saying, `Put me down!'' The Hut was considered so all-American that The "Saturday Evening Post" featured it on the cover in 1946, when the average check at the food stand was 40 cents. Reynolds recalled that The Hut was flanked by an asphalt apron accommodating up to 40 cars parked three-deep. For somebody up front to back out, he or she had to flash the lights and the cars immediately behind would back onto the two-laned Flagler Drive. Perpetual musical parking was followed by musical car-hopping. Reynolds said seniors and football players got the front spots. Business continued to boom even as The Hut changed hands again after 1959, when a Miami restaurateur bought the business and added fried chicken and strawberry shortcake to the menu. But by the early 1970s, times had changed. Nearby Palm Beach High School had closed and merged with another school. Downtown West Palm Beach was in a downturn, as consumers preferred shopping and dining in expansive, air-conditioned malls. The Hut closed in 1973, reopening for a short stint in 1977. In 1982, the building was razed to make way for the Phillips Point high-rise. 'It's been so long,' McMakin recalled in 2021. 'But I don't think any of us has ever forgotten The Hut.' Reporting from former staff writer Eliot Kleinberg and Palm Beach Daily News writer M.M. Cloutier contributed to this story. This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: The Hut: West Palm Beach soda shop drew teen Burt Reynolds, others
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Palm Beach County-based 'SIM swap' scam could extend across U.S., court records show
A Palm Beach resident may be one of many people across the country who fell victim to a scam known as "SIM swapping." Palm Beach Police on May 28 arrested a 31-year-old man and 29-year-old woman who live in Westlake, but whose scheme to bilk unsuspecting people from hundreds of thousands of dollars may stretch across state lines, according to their arrest reports. The pair were arrested after the Palm Beach resident, who lives on the South End, called police to report that someone had accessed his phone and financial accounts, gained access to about $1,500 in cash from an ATM and attempted to wire transfer more than $200,000 from his bank account, according to the arrest reports. What officers found what a scheme they said was orchestrated by the Westlake couple, who tricked the man into transferring his phone numbers to a new carrier — without him knowing, the arrest reports said. Here's what to know about SIM swapping and this case. "SIM swapping," or "SIM hijacking," happens when fraudsters gain control of a person's phone number and then use it to access their banking and other financial and personal accounts, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Internet Crime Complaint Center, also called the IC3. More: Palm Beach Police: 'SIM swap' scam tried to steal more than $200,000 from Palm Beacher The Palm Beach resident told police that he received a call on April 8 from a person who said who said they were with AT&T, and that he needed to validate his phone numbers using a code sent to him via text message, an arrest report said. The resident provided the code that he received to the person, but later discovered that the code was used to forward his phone number to a different provider, Verizon, police said. By giving that code to the person who said they were from AT&T, he allowed them to complete the final step to move all three of the phone numbers on his account to the other carrier, police wrote in the arrest report. About 20 minutes after that phone call, phone numbers connected to the resident's AT&T account stopped working, police said. Once the phone numbers were transferred, someone tried to withdraw money and make a wire transfer from the Palm Beach resident's bank account, police said. Someone also successfully took over one of the man's email accounts. Detectives determined that once the couple gained access to a person's phone line, they could "circumvent two-factor authentication and gain access to victims' financial accounts, resulting in substantial unauthorized wire transfers and fraudulent transactions," the arrest report said. In recent years, the number of SIM swap cases in the U.S. has dropped from a peak in 2022, according to the IC3's annual reports: In 2024, there were 982 complaints of SIM swapping with a total reported loss of $25,983,946. In 2023, 1,075 SIM swapping complaints were made with a reported loss of $48,798,103. In 2022, 2,026 cases were reported with a reported loss of $72,652,571. In 2021, the IC3 received 1,611 complaints about SIM swapping with estimated losses of $68 million. Once the phone numbers were transferred, someone tried to withdraw money and make a wire transfer from the Palm Beach resident's bank account, police said. Someone also successfully took over one of the man's email accounts. It's unclear from the arrest reports just how many people may have been affected. However, Palm Beach Police talked with at least one person in another state, Nevada, who provided evidence that they may also have lost money to the same people who targeted the Palm Beach resident, an arrest report said. When the Westlake home where the couple lived, Palm Beach Police found a yellow notebook with "Work $" written on it, the arrest report said. Inside the notebook, officers said they found bank account details, Social Security numbers, addresses, names and more personal details about more than 50 people in Florida and across the United States. Those who believe their case may be connected to the one in Palm Beach should call the Palm Beach Police Department's non-emergency line at 561-838-5454, department spokesman Capt. Will Rothrock said. Complaints can also be filed with the IC3 at Palm Beach has cautioned residents to be wary of potential scams. "Most of these cases nationally go unsolved," Rothrock said. "The work and tenacity that our detectives put into this to follow the leads to the end and bring a successful conclusion are noteworthy." Kristina Webb is a reporter for Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach her at kwebb@ Subscribe today to support our journalism. This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Palm Beach County-based scam could extend across U.S., records show
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Palm Beach's own Tan Man welcomes 'Fox and Friends' to breakfast
The Tan Man is a viral Golden Boy. Palm Beach hometown guy George Hamilton busted the internet early May 20 with an appearance on "Fox and Friends." Fox News personality Steve Doocy, who recently relocated to Florida, launched his new "Morning Walk" feature, accompanied by fellow Foxie — and Palm Beacher — Bret Baier. The two walked along the Lake Worth Pier and Baier talked about golf, his tall sons and the Middle East. As they headed for breakfast at Benny's On The Beach, they met a man who was hiding his face using the backside of three Benny's menus as a tan-enhancing reflector. 'It's George Hamilton!" Doocy said when the tan man put down the menus and flashed his pearly whites. "Did you get a little glare from the teeth?" Hamilton asked. When asked how he kept them so white, Hamilton said, "They look a lot whiter because the tan is so dark." Hamilton talked about growing up in Palm Beach, and going to high school with Burt Reynolds — "He was known as Buddy then" — and how they often discussed becoming actors. Hamilton displayed his trademark humor when he responded to Doocy's "How did the tan thing start?' "I was new in Hollywood and asked some established actors what I could do to acquire a movie star persona. Cary Grant said, 'You cahn't go wrong with a great hayercut,' and Fred Astaire advised me to 'Get a good tailor.'" But a "very drunk" Robert Mitchum told him: "Don't waste perfectly good drinking time with a barber or a tailor. Just get a good tan." Something tells us that anecdote is what one would politely describe as "apocryphal," but it's dang sure entertaining. The threesome then sat down for breakfast at Benny's On The Beach, which Hamilton described as his "favorite breakfast spot." Benny's owner Lee Lipton picked up the breakfast tab. Shannon Donnelly is the society editor at the Palm Beach Daily News. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today. This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: 'Fox and Friends' segment features Palm Beach's own Tan Man | Column
