The Great Grift: COVID-19 Aid Thieves Bought Fancy Cars, a Pokemon Card—Even a Private Island

AP reporter Richard Lardner kayaks to Sweetheart Island, off the coast of Yankeetown, Fla., on Aug. 5, 2023. Julio Aguilar/AP Photo

YANKEETOWN, Fla.—A freshwater spring bubbles amid the mangroves, cabbage palms, and red cedars on Sweetheart Island, a two-acre uninhabited patch of paradise about a mile off the coast of this little Gulf Coast town.

Pelicans divebomb nearby into the cool waters of Florida’s Withlacoochee Bay and the open view westward holds the promise of dazzling sunsets.