Cops: Naked Man High On "Flakka" Ran Through Traffic To Escape Imaginary Killers

A Florida man who stripped off his clothes and ran through Fort Lauderdale traffic to escape imaginary killers hot on his heels was high on “flakka,” the synthetic drug that appears poised to supplant bath salts as the leading cause of hallucinatory havoc, cops report.

Following his apprehension, Matthew Kenney, 34, told police that after smoking the synthetic drug he began fleeing pursuers who had stolen his clothing and were intent on murdering him. Seen at right, Kenney explained that he would “rather die than be caught by these unknown people," according to a Fort Lauderdale Police Department report.

Officers found Kenney--who was naked except for a pair of sneakers--running in traffic along Broward Boulevard early Saturday evening. Kenney explained that, “if I got hit by a car they would stop chasing me.”

Kenney, who was hospitalized for a psychiatric evaluation, has been arrested three times since December, according to Broward County court records. His recent rap sheet includes collars for disorderly conduct, assault, narcotics possession, and resisting arrest.

“Flakka,” which can be smoked, snorted, or injected, is an amphetamine that can sell for as little as five dollars per hit. But the high can come with side effects that include aggression, psychosis, and delirium.

The street drug has triggered a series of bizarre incidents in Florida, which appears to be the tip of the “flakka” spear. In Fort Lauderdale alone this year, a man high on the drug was arrested after trying to break down the door of the city’s police headquarters, while a second user impaled himself last month on a fence surrounding the headquarters.