E-mails to Fla.: Tiger treated too easily

ISLEWORTH, Fla., March 11 (UPI) -- The Florida Highway Patrol received more than 1,600 e-mails, most of them criticizing the agency, after Tiger Woods's car crash last year, officials said.

The golfing great crashed his sports-utility vehicle into a neighbor's tree in Isleworth Nov. 27, prompting many e-mails saying Woods had been treated favorably by the Florida Highway Patrol and its umbrella agency, the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, because he is a celebrity, the Orlando Sentinel reported Wednesday.

One e-mail from Canada read: "I have to ask, what the hell are you people doing? The FHP in this incident is being bullied and mocked by Tiger Woods. Shame on You, FHP, and get back to business."

"I've seen better work by a mall cop," read another e-mail, which, along with others, compared the agency to a bunch of Barney Fifes (the bumbling deputy on the "Andy Griffith Show").

Three days after the accident, the transportation agency tried to get Woods's medical records containing possible information about alcohol or drug involvement, but Assistant State Attorney Steve Foster refused to honor the agency's subpoena request, citing insufficient evidence, the newspaper reported.