Craig Jungwirth is up to his old tricks – again. But this time law enforcement has stepped in and issued a warrant for his arrest.
The only problem is – no one can find him.
He’s now been charged with stalking for obsessively making hundreds of appointments to a local barber, filling up his book, and essentially shutting down his business. The charge is a misdemeanor.
According to a detective at the Wilton Manors Police Department, there is another active case being investigated that may lead to additional charges as well. That case involves a potential charge of harassing communication.
Over the years, Jungwirth has proved to be a master at evading law enforcement and process servers. Recently he’s been popping up on apps making people think he’s in town. But this week he showed up on the grid in Los Angeles. He’s been known in the past to change his location online in order to fool people.
Screenshot via Growlr: The Gay Bear Social Network.
By now, just the mention of the Jungwirth name will make almost any gay man in South Florida cringe.
Jungwirth was once arrested, and made national news, by threatening to harm the Wilton Manors LGBTQ community with a “Pulse” like attack in 2016. Over the years, he’s continued to harass local queer men.
Two of the local gay men he targeted in 2021 attempted to file restraining orders. They went to court, only to be told Jungwirth had not been served, so the court was unable to put a restraining order in place. For a restraining order to move forward, the accused has to be served notice, a legal requirement before a civil case can move forward.
When OutSFL initially heard Jungwirth was once again harassing locals, some of his prior victims declined to be interviewed again because they did not want to be put back on his radar and harassed.
OutSFL first re-interviewed the barber in September. The harassment has continued on and off for a year now.
“It’s living hell,” the barber said. “I hate it. There's no rhyme or reason for this guy to do this to me. I've never, I've never met this man.”
This years-long harassment all stemmed from one chance interaction on Facebook when a local bar posted something about Jungwrith and the barber responded in a comment.
“I made a comment, not knowing that my safety or my sanity is going to be jeopardized,” the barber said in 2021.
When the barber went to work the next day, he noticed an appointment with Jungwirth.
“I canceled the appointment,” he said.
Later that afternoon, Jungwirth called the barbershop, and they spoke briefly before handing the phone back to the receptionist. The barber said Jungwirth allegedly told the receptionist he was going to show up to the shop at 4 p.m. to “beat the fucking hell out of that fucker.”
In the next two weeks following that interaction, Jungwirth booked 188 appointments through the online system, forcing the barber to go offline.
“I can't tell you how much money I lost because nobody's able to book me online. I'm a very demanding barber. I get booked constantly. My schedule got pulled offline,” he said at the time.
Jungwirth spent months behind bars in 2016 while prosecutors attempted to gather evidence against him when he allegedly threatened the local LGBTQ community. In the end, though, investigators were not able to link the threats to any of the 59 Facebook profiles Jungwirth had access to, so they dropped the case.
Jungwirth first made national news when he was accused of posting this message on Facebook:
“My events are selling out cause you faggots are total patsies. None of you deserve to live,” a man wrote on Facebook with the profile name Craig Jungwirth. “If you losers thought the Pulse nightclub shooting was bad, wait till you see what I’m planning for Labor Day.” Another message read: “I’m gonna be killing you fags faster than cops kill niggers. It’s time to clean up Wilton Manors from all you AIDS infested losers.”
The South Florida Gay News at the time was never able to independently verify whether those messages came from Jungwirth, since he was known to create multiple fake profiles to promote his Beach Bear Weekend events.
Jungwirth hasn’t just targeted people. In 2019, he was accused of operating @FortLauderdalePride, an Instagram account that’s just close enough to Pride Fort Lauderdale’s account (@PrideFortLauderdale) to confuse the community.
Someone is now sending messages online asking people to purchase tickets to a fake bear event. OutSFL cannot confirm those messages are from Jungwirth, but he’s been known to engage in these scams in the past.
In 2019 Jungwirth was accused of attempting to sell tickets to a legitimate pool party at a local guesthouse that he had no part in.
Years before that, Jungwirth legitimately bought the rights to Beach Bear Weekend, but then was accused of turning it into a scam. The former organizers attempted to sue Jungwirth to take the event back, but eventually dropped the suit after deciding the event was forever tainted and no longer worth the hassle. Eventually a new legitimate event called Bearsurrection was launched with the hope of circumventing Jungwirth.
It didn’t work.
Jungwirth was accused of attempting to piggyback off other real events in order to attempt to cause chaos and scam the LGBTQ community.
OutSFL reached out to Jungwirth for a comment via his last known phone number, but he did not respond.
If you have any information regarding Jungwirth’s whereabouts, call the WMPD at 954-390-2150.
A recap of some of Jungwirth’s past legal issues:
FALL 2016 — Arrested and charged with interstate transmission of a threatening communication. Charges later dropped.
2016 — Jungwirth sues Alibi, The Manor, Hunters and PJ’s Bar in Wilton Manors in Orange County Court in Orlando for allegedly breaching Beach Bear Weekend contracts they never had signed, but Jungwirth bounces all his filing fee checks to the county and various Judges dismiss all the suits on motions by Norm Kent acting as their lawyer.
January 2017 — Charges against Jungwirth dropped after prosecutors admitted the evidence against him was “weak.” Federal investigators were not able to link the threats to any of the 59 Facebook profiles Jungwirth had access to.
January 2017 — Jungwirth pleads guilty to skipping out on his bill at the Courtyard Café in 2015 as well as criminal mischief from an incident in 2016 when Jungwirth defaced the windows at Rumors with paint. Sentenced to probation.
June 2017 — Arrested again after he violated the terms of his probation by not completing a psychological evaluation and assessment and violating a no-contact order with the victim of his crimes. “The bottom line is it wasn’t done. He needs to get it done. He was ordered to have it done. What he’s saying is clearly not true,” Judge Lerner-Wren said at the time. “I would certainly admonish Mr. Jungwirth to fully comply with any and all no-contact orders — direct, indirect and that is through any means of social media — email, Twitter, Facebook, blogging.”
August 2017 — Attempts to sue Publisher of SFGN, Norm Kent, for defamation. “Defendant Kent intentionally and with malice published an article which provided entirely different information and cited these various websites, contracts and various agreements as sources, thus making misrepresentations and making false statements,” the lawsuit read. It was later dismissed. “His claim is specious without merit and a frivolous waste of the court’s time,” Kent said at the time. “Nothing we said about him was untrue. SFGN stands by its reporting.”
FALL 2017 — Trying to avoid service on a suit naming him as a defendant, Jungwirth hides out in a county court bathroom and is removed by BSO.
FALL 2018 — Jungwirth attempts to sue an Alibi bartender for defamation at a Pride Fort Lauderdale event. Pending, awaiting a ruling on a motion to dismiss.
December 2018 — Arrested after an incident involving an argument with his mother where he was accused of falsely imprisoning her, which included trying to prevent her from meeting with police officers. He was released on bond. Formal charges were not filed. The State Attorney declined to prosecute the case.
November 2020 — According to the Orlando Sentinel, Jungwirth was being investigated by Central Florida law enforcement agencies for continuing to promote and sell tickets to a Christmas event that had been canceled. The Sentinel wrote: “The Orange County Sheriff’s Office and Orlando Police Department have looked into whether Jungwirth committed any crimes, though he is not currently facing charges.” It doesn’t appear anything came of those investigations yet.
Editor’s note: this information was taken from a story that originally was published in the South Florida Gay News.
