Top 100 Stories

Headline Surfer® graphic / The 1700 block of S.R. 44 near the roadway’s intersection with West Canal Street is where bicyclist Shariema Smith was struck by a hit-and-run driver as shown in this locator map at left.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- When Shariema Smith was hit by a motorist during the early morning hours of Sept. 9, she was riding her daughter’s bicycle, which was destroyed.

But thanks to the generosity of Tom Menzel and Green Pedal Ministries, Zaria Smith, the victim’s 12-year-old daughter, was given a brand new bicycle.

Photo for Headline Surfer® / The vehicle shown here from a surveillance video snapshot was used asa battering ram in the burglary of a DeBary convenience store.

DEBARY -- Thieves used a truck to smash the front doors and then grabbed nearly $9,000 worth of cigarettes from inside Lil Sammy's Citgo, 600 S. Charles R Beall Blvd., at 3:30 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 26.

DAYTONA BEACH -- Headline Surfer® is counting down the biggest stories from the year that was in the award-winning 24/7 internet newspaper's multimedia platform in words, sight and sound. So what ultimately will be the No. 1 story?

Photos for Headline Surfer® / Accused bank robber Michael N. London, 63, is shown in a police mugshot on Friday, a far cry from the Santa Claus get-up shown at far left in a surveillance video still from Monday's armed robbery of the Port Orange Sun Trust branch on Nova Road.

PORT ORANGE -- If you thought the man dressed in the Santa outfit who held up the Sun Trust Bank two days before Christmas was having a bad hair day, imagine what an eye opener he was to Port Orange cops who nabbed him outside his residence earlier today, sans the holiday get-up.

Maximum of 4,500 tickets printed

DAYTONA BEACH -- Your odds of being struck by lightning in a given year is one in 750,000. The odds of winning Powerball are one in 175,223,510. So the odds are definitely more in your favor in if you purchase a $50 ticket for a drawing in mid-March for a custom-built 2013 Harley Davidson Street Glide valued at $35,000, in the Daytona Chamber of Commerce's drawing of the "Official Bike Week Motorcycle." Oh, and as for the odds of winning the flashy Harley, it's one in 4,500.

DAYTONA BEACH -- Though neither is from Daytona Beach, that didn't stop Mayor Derrick Henry from capitalizing on the PR that comes with welcoming new-found celebrities Alex and Sierra of the X-Factor reality show with keys to the city during a performance Thursday night at the bandshell on the "world's most famous beach."

Homicide may be result of stray bullet; investigators interviewing possible gunman

Headline Surfer® locator / 3220 Cadehill Drive in Deltona as shown in this snapshot graphic is the locale of a fatal shooting this Wednesday morning.

DELTONA -- The Volusia County Sheriff’s Office is investigating after gunfire this Christmas morning that claimed the life of a 69-year-old man shot in the chest. His name has not been released.

"Deputies are investigating to determine whether a stray bullet may have caused the death," Sheriff's spokesman Gary Davidson told Headline Surfer®.

Deputies were dispatched to 3220 Cadehill Drive after the Sheriff’s Office’s Communications Center received a 9-1-1 call at 10:02 a.m. that a man had been shot.

By Jason Davis

DAYTONA BEACH -- Just about a year-and-a-half ago, I was the voice of Sunday Morning with the Boston Pops, a local radio show with quite a listening base. Life was good; I made my radio show, produced syndicated shows for our station, and even produced a few local shows.

Then my life changed.