Original subtitles

What you're about to see may be dangerous, illegal, unethical, petty,

immoral, and most definitely stupid.

But it's also all true.

Sort of.

I've had to learn how to live next door to complete business.

Naked rituals that they do in the backyard.

Taunting.

It's the stuff that night. mirrors are made of

I've

always been a water baby since I was a kid you could not get me out of the pool

it's just my safe place my zen place no matter what's going on in your life you

go beneath the surface and it's Literally, like, everything just goes

Whether it's swimming pools, lakes, oceans, cenotes, whatever it is, I've

been drawn to the water.

My name is Whitney Fair, and I am an aquatic performer.

So in 2017, I had just gone back to university to finish my English degree.

And I was told by a former swimmer about this opening at the Mermaid Show. We

are talking real -life mermaids. Rack Bar is a destination.

It's the quintessential mermaid show of Fort Lauderdale.

It's, like, iconic. And they're so beautiful, all the mermaids. And

like, windows.

And it's always sold out.

The show is improvised.

It gives a lot of room for creative expression.

All of the performers are very different.

People love it. Kids love it. Adults love it.

It's synchronized swimming. It's freediving. It's putting a tail on. It's

a tail off, depending on what show we're doing.

And I thought, wow, what an interesting side hustle.

Like, this will be great. I go to school during the week. I can swim in the

shows on the weekend.

What's the worst that could happen?

So I auditioned for the show and I thought I did terrible.

And the owner of the show came up and she said, you're hired.

Everyone had been there for quite a few years.

A few of the girls were in their 20s. A few of us were in our 30s.

Mia was older and kind of took on this mother hen type of persona.

At the time, I was doing all the costuming, all the planning. I pretty

the show.

And I knew because I had been around her long enough that you did not want to be

on her bad side.

I'm a

perfectionist, so yeah, I guess I'm a little tough.

Shortly after I joined the show, I was added to a group chat.

With Mia and about six or seven swimmers, where we mostly talked shop.

A lot of bitching about the job, a lot of complaining. It was just unhealthy.

So I decided, okay, this is not going to be good, and Mia's going to be upset.

But I'm going to excuse myself from this. I'm going to excuse myself from

So I left.

And that's when my problem began.

Immediately, the dynamic changed.

It was just tense. It was a toxic work environment.

Another swimmer that was on that group chat texted me afterwards and said,

you're so brave. I want to leave so bad.

But she was scared.

I tried to just ignore it and hoped that it would get better.

But it did not get better.

We were a team. We were all friends.

We were all very close. And then one person came in and disrupted all that.

Mermaiding definitely draws a lot of big personalities.

I think it's safe to say that if you put a bunch of mermaids together, there's

definitely going to be some drama.

The last night that Mia was supposed to perform, there was a poolside squabble.

Two of the mermaids started fighting.

Mia called her an asshole and was really mean to her.

And so then Whitney snapped back, you're an asshole, da -da -da -da -da.

And then Mia threatened her job.

And then Whitney insulted her.

One called the other one heavy or something.

You bitch!

All the girls are like, whoa, whoa, whoa.

She went a little too far.

She attacked me. She called me a bunch of ugly names. I said things that I

regret. I lost my cool.

And then Mia got really upset and started crying.

I left that night because, again, I'm not someone who likes conflict. I

myself from a situation that I thought was not safe.

And then I was fired over email a few days later.

After Mia was let go, there was about a year of online.

Bullying and harassment.

She was the one that verbally and physically attacked me and ran me off

Ruined my reputation and got me fired. She would refer to me as crazy eyes.

The person that got me fired. Which I refer to as crazy eyes.

I became enraged because I don't like bullies. I'm sure this would be taken

for bullying. I'm sure.

Whatever. Her husband, Jeff, posted white trash under a photo.

White trash?

Yeah, they went after her. They went after her hard. They totally held her

responsible for getting Mia fired.

They called me a drug -dealing felon.

Like, I'm not talking about gun arrests on the weekends. I'm talking about,

like, hard time.

You're demonizing me for a marijuana arrest when I was 18 years old?

Fucking dork.

After that, somebody sent me a screenshot of Mia's Facebook that said

signed on our new house.

and it was a picture of the house next door to me.

I had already been looking over my shoulder, avoiding places that they

So when I first saw her next door, everything went into slow motion.

At first it was like complete shock.

I mean, I had a panic attack, hyperventilating.

I mean, it just felt like it wasn't even real.

Yeah, it was a really weird coincidence. I know everybody else is saying it's a

coincidence, but I am not. I will yell that at the top of a mountain. There is

no way that's a coincidence.

It was the strangest, most terrifying piece of information that I've ever

received.

I was scared, but I stayed.

And then to find out this piece of wit.

This is all mid -century uranium glass.

It sort of gives a Haunted Mansion vibe.

And then my collection of Ouija boards and, of course, my collection of

broomsticks. When I was performing in the show with Mia, she never referred to

herself as a witch, never spoke about witchcraft.

Oh, I was a witch. I've been a witch my whole life.

The mermaid was just a job. It was something that I loved performing.

But I was a witch from day one. She was in a pirate reenactment group, and then

she got into the mermaid scene, and now she's a witch.

It's fucking hot in here is what it is.

We just had all this furniture custom made.

Actually, my husband had this specially made for me.

And I just thought how cool would it have just a mini coffin in the room. I

think it just ties everything in pretty good. It's really comfy.

Pagans, witches, we're all normal people. You know, there is no craziness

to it.

We're not monsters. We're not evil.

We don't bite the heads off chickens.

I think that's the biggest thing.

We're normal people. We're just like everybody else.

When I saw that she lived next door, I immediately asked the goddess, like,

okay, you obviously have some sort of lesson for me. And then I started to

think, maybe this is not so much a lesson for me, but a lesson for her.

There would be spell jars on the fence separating our property.

She would speak openly about hexing and cursing.

When you're activating or messing with the darkness that you don't completely

understand, that can be very dangerous.

My favorite type of nightmare is nightmare spell.

I make sure that that person can't sleep. They're haunted by nightmares.

They'll hear water dripping in the background and can't figure out where

coming from. Things like that.

I had placed security cameras around my place. I needed that

for my safety. If I was going to stay there, I needed at least that.

I noticed that there was a camera pointed directly into my backyard.

We are two practicing pagans, so we do ritual work, practice, and celebrate

holidays back there.

One of the reasons that Jeff and Mia were upset about my security

camera is because of the naked rituals that they do in the

backyard.

I would honestly rather pull my fingernails out with pliers than to

see that.

Traditionally, yeah, in Rick Bull, it's to be naked.

It's true.

And that's something I don't mind, so, you know, it works for both of us, I

think.

I was in the bedroom, and I just...

had this creepy feeling.

I looked at the camera and it was covered.

So I scrolled back and saw Jeff scaling the side of

my property with the ladder and taping over the camera.

I'm not going to run in fear from these people.

I put up a no trespassing sign, but he put a rake over the fence and pulled

down the no trespassing sign.

This had been maybe a year and a half of harassment and bullying.

Making her life a living hell to the point where she thought she was in

So I felt like I needed to make a police report just to document what was

happening.

When I first went to the police, They said, what took you so long?

Because how do you go to the police on the police?

Mia's husband is Jeff Mellie.

He's a lieutenant with the Broward Sheriff's Office.

I've been in law enforcement for over three decades.

This is my Libra tattoo.

It's a guy holding two equal scales.

That's my sheepdog, because that's what I am. I'm a protector. And that's for my

country. As far as magical or spellworking is concerned, like I said,

protect him. I'll make sure that he always has some kind of shielding or

grounding.

I've obviously cast on him to protect his vest and his bag.

Done a few things on your bullets to make sure that they don't target

Not the target. Not the target.

So I went

into the police department, and I was very clear that I wasn't trying to get

in trouble, that I wasn't there to press charges, that I simply wanted this

behavior to stop, and I wanted documentation.

That's all.

And what did they do? They did nothing to help me.

Nothing.

Sorry.

Sorry. Let's cut for a sec.

You all right? Yeah. Sorry.

Do you want to take a walk inside?

No, I'm okay. I just need one minute.

Okay. I'm okay.

Four months later, I started turning the property into an Airbnb

called Casa Zen.

I've worked really hard to create this peaceful environment.

I purchased some new LED lights so I could change the colors and just really

light up the place and give it a cool vibe.

my entire house was lit neon purple they become completely enraged and come

over to my side of the property jeff was barefoot with no shirt on had

definitely been drinking get rid of these lights because they're fucking

bothering us i was called such a fucking nefarious cunt? She's such a nefarious

fucking cunt. There was another video clip. The ring camera that was on the

driveway caught them screaming at me.

I think I called her

a cunt.

I did. I called her a cunt.

That's mean. That was mean. And I do regret that. And I've said it. It's not

best moment. But, you know, my Latina temper got the best of me that day.

It just feels like they're this predator and I'm the prey. And they like

watching people suffer.

I finally contacted an attorney, and imagine hearing this story.

Okay, so I'm an underwater performer. I'm getting bullied by a cop and a

I mean, it sounds absolutely insane.

Did you call up a bunch of attorneys before me?

I just happened to be the first one? No, I didn't know that.

My name is Gary Collin, and I'm an attorney.

I received a call from Whitney.

about a problem she was having with her next -door neighbors.

While there was probably a case there for trespass, the amount of damages for

what he had done would not have been sufficient to begin a lawsuit.

Trespass is a misdemeanor, you stupid fuck.

But then he said, hey, wait, wait. I want you to do a public records request

find out all searches that were done in your name.

They accused her of being a convicted felon, I think going to prison.

It was a marijuana charge and it was expunged from my record.

The only way that Jeffrey Melies would have ever had access to that information

was through running her name.

And I suggested to the owner of the show that she do a public records request

and another swimmer. Somehow she gets in touch with this lawyer who's like, look

into this. She asked the rest of us.

So we did, and every single one of ours came back with Jeff searching our

private personal information.

I believe that's really highly against the law, especially for no reason. I

said, we got something.

She went and she called the police on us.

Oh, baby.

Oh, baby.

Well, the punishment he received was a five day suspension without pay, which

appears to be a slap on the hand. He continues to work as a deputy sheriff

no other sanctions on him.

They're doing this out of revenge.

They're attacking him because of me. And it's very frustrating.

The issue with my husband and his job, it's a red herring. Look at the shiny

police corruption over here.

I couldn't tell you why she thought we were going after her.

The law was broken against us, so we took steps to find justice.

I always turned the other cheek.

I always tried to ignore it, hoping that it would stop. My way of fighting it

ended up being with my attorney and the law.

That was my way of fighting it. His answer was as to why he could do this

was, I am a police officer 24 -7, and anything I do is official duty.

This is not...

A Gestapo stick.

I don't think that there's a more Floridian story than a mermaid getting

harassed and bullied by a witch and a corrupt police

officer.

We're looking forward to, in the next couple of years here, maybe relocating

somewhere up north so we can enjoy the fall weather.

We want to leave.

and leave all of it back here where it belongs.

I feel like it's time to wrap Florida up. I like the weather here, and I've

loved being so close to the ocean, but it's also time to move on to the next

adventure.

Yeah, you know, you can't handle Florida, these rookies.

Keep your hands on that plow, hold on.

Mary,

Mark, Luke, and John, all the prophets, all good and gone. Keep your hands on

that plow, hold on.