It’s nice to win a prize. Scratch-off lotto tickets, a free milkshake, free tickets to a show. Prizes are good. On Wednesday, Linsey Owens, 83, thought he had won a prize from a local Nissan dealer. He did not. When a Nissan employee explained why, police say, Owens beat him with a golf club.
Owens was charged with two counts of aggravated battery, after an altercation broke out at a local mall parking lot between him and an employee working a sales event from a Nissan dealer.
According to a police report of the incident, Owens showed up around 6:30pm with a “scratch off ticket” that “stated he won a prize.” It’s unclear what the prize entailed, and a sheriff’s office spokesperson couldn’t elaborate when reached by Jalopnik.
The Nissan employee that Owens spoke to explained he needed to purchase a car to claim the prize, the report says. Owens was then asked to leave.
“[Owens] became irate that he had to purchase a vehicle in order to claim the prize and got into his vehicle,” the report continued, noting Owens drove a White Honda.
This appears to be about the same time the Nissan employee started recording video, which was obtained by Florida News Channel 8 reporter Josh Rogers and tweeted Thursday:
The Nissan employee was later standing in a row of cars for sale when Owens, the report says, drove his Honda down the aisle.
“[As Owens] approached, he sped up and swerved at him, causing the mirror [to] make contact with the victim’s left forearm,” according to the report.
Owens allegedly then stopped his car, ran to his trunk, and retrieved a golf club. The police report says he approached the victim — which, at this point, had started recording a video of the situation — and struck him on the right side of his face, knocking the phone out of his hand.
A statement police took from Owens is redacted, beyond indicating that he “admitted to going to the event an getting upset about not being able to claim the ticket.” Deputies took him into custody without incident.
WFLA reports that Owens was “placed on high supervised release” with no monetary bond and “no contact with [the] victim or witnesses.”
(H/T: Jqj213)