Buster
Cops: Man, 90, Slugged Neighbor In "Get Off My Lawn" Dispute
After demanding that an interloper get off his sprawling lawn, a 90-year-old Florida Man twice punched a neighbor in the face, according to cops who arrested the rowdy nonagenarian for battery and resisting arrest.
Police say Thomas Conrad was busted Saturday afternoon following a dispute over a gardener cutting grass outside his home in Sorrento, a city 30 miles from Orlando.
Conrad’s next-door neighbor, Jack Henson, 46, told police that his “lawn guy was being yelled at by [Conrad] for being on his property while cutting the grass.” Conrad recalled telling the gardener to “get off his property,” according to an arrest affidavit.
After asking Conrad “numerous times” to leave them alone, Henson recalled, an “agitated and aggressive” Conrad declared, “I should punch you.” Henson said he replied, “Go ahead, but I wouldn’t advise or police will get called.”
Cops allege that Conrad (seen at right) then punched Henson twice in the face.
When police later arrived at Conrad’s residence--a $770,000, 3288-square-foot home in the gated RedTail Country Club Community--he was resting and did not want to be disturbed, his 89-year-old wife told deputies.
After his spouse convinced him to speak with cops, Conrad recalled telling the gardener to get off his lawn (pictured below). He claimed that Henson “told him to punch him in the face and at that time he punched him twice on the left side of his face.” Deputies then asked Conrad “if someone was to ask him to shoot them would he do it?” The retiree replied, “Then I would have shot him.”
Conrad, cops noted, “advised he did nothing wrong because the victim asked him to punch him in the face.”
When cops tried to explain that he had committed a battery, Conrad told them to “Get the fuck out of my house” and began to walk away. As deputies sought to take Conrad into custody, he allegedly balled up his fist and refused to place his hands behind his back. After being handcuffed, Conrad was booked into the county jail for battery and resisting police, both misdemeanors.
Conrad was freed from custody Saturday evening after posting $2000 bond. He is scheduled for arraignment on October 13 and a judge has ordered him to have no contact with Henson.