Fla. Man Arrested for Using AI Video to Fake Crime Involving Deputy

A Palm Beach County man used an AI-generated video to create evidence of a crime in Lake Mary that never occurred — possibly to gain attention online, the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office said Wednesday.

The sheriff’s office said Alexis Martínez-Arizala, who was arrested Wednesday, approached a deputy March 24 while both were inside a store in Lake Mary and told him he saw people entering his patrol vehicle. Martínez-Arizala, who a police report lists as white, showed the deputy a three-second video depicting two Black men entering what appeared to be the deputy’s car, according to that report.

The deputy checked the vehicle but found nothing had been disturbed or stolen. He then checked the store’s outside surveillance footage, which showed no one approach his car except for the man later identified as Martínez-Arizala, who walked towards the vehicle with his phone out before entering the store, the report said.

Investigators later found Martínez-Arizala had made social media posts related to the encounter with the deputy “in an apparent attempt to gain attention and create viral content,” the release said.

Martínez-Arizala, 22, of Lake Worth, was arrested in Puerto Rico on charges of making a false report of a crime to law enforcement and tampering with or fabricating physical evidence. He will be extradited back to Seminole County and held on a $7,000 bond, the sheriff’s office said in a news release.

The deputy watched the provided video several times after the man left the store and realized it was fabricated. He noticed several details did not match reality, including doors to the patrol vehicle did not say “Seminole Sheriff,” that the two men are not visible through the car’s windshield once they enter the vehicle, and that the rear door to the prisoner compartment opens and closes by itself, the report said.

Sheriff Dennis Lemma said in a statement that his agency is taking these types of incidents seriously as AI becomes more available.

“The misuse of artificial intelligence to create deepfake videos is a growing concern, particularly when it targets public safety professionals,” Lemma said. “These fabricated videos can damage reputations, create unnecessary tensions, and raise real safety concerns for the first responders who serve our communities.”

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