Palm Beach County deputies played defense against a group's ploy to solicit drivers into giving them money for a semiprofessional football team for which they didn't actually play.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office said Shawn Martin, 23, Pernell Taylor and Quinton Embery, both 24, posed as members of the South Florida 49ers and huddled in a median trying to get cash for a trip to California.
The team is a legitimate, semiprofessional team based in South Florida for men who are 18 and older.
As they were trying to get "donations" Monday, a deputy saw that the men were holding up traffic at the intersection of Forest Hill Boulevard and Military Trail just west of Palm Springs.