FORT WALTON BEACH — A man who ran a stop sign in front of a Fort Walton Beach Police Department officer blamed his traffic error on an insect.

“A fly or something flew into my mouth and that’s why I didn’t stop,” Marquise Tishawn Mercer told the officer during the Oct. 7 traffic stop.

Mercer, who is 33, did not have any identification and gave the officer a fake name, according to his arrest report.

The name didn’t match any records. The officer took Mercer into custody, at which point he provided a second false name, the report said.

They were finally able to determine his identity through a records search on the vehicle he was driving. When they asked Mercer why he didn’t provide his real name, he told them that they have him on some “(expletive) warrant out of Crestview and I didn’t want to go back,” the report said.

He did have an active warrant out of the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office and is a habitual traffic offender, the report said.

He was charged with giving a false name and being a habitual traffic offender.