Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Unruly Legoland guest who squawked that his name was Pterodactyl Tasered by police

Police officers used a Taser in an attempt to stop an unruly visitor at Legoland Florida water park last Wednesday. Richard Campagna, 36, from Port Charlotte, was chased through the water park in an incident that lasted around 30 minutes. When Polk County sheriff's deputies asked him his name, he squawked "Pterodactyl."

The Sheriff's Office said he is charged with battery on a law enforcement officer, a felony, for splashing water on a deputy, as well as disorderly conduct and resisting officers without violence. Deputies were called to the park at about noon after Campagna, who appeared drunk and refused to leave the park after being told to by Legoland staff, according to the Sheriff's Office.



Instead, he ran into the park's lazy river, said Carrie Horstman, a Sheriff's Office spokeswoman. The water course was "occupied by a large number of children," the report said. That is when he splashed water on the deputy. At that point, deputies tried to subdue him with a Taser. But because only one of the probes stuck into Campagna, use of the stun gun was unsuccessful.

He pulled the probe out of his elbow, and it took multiple deputies as well as Legoland staff to chase him down and eventually arrest him, Horstman said. "He was unruly," she said. Despite common misconceptions, the electrical discharge from Taser poses no risk to a person who is in water, Horstman said. Campagna was booked into the Polk County Jail in lieu of $1,750 bail.

2 comments:

Ratz said...

Felony splashing. Terrible.

Barbwire said...

Only in Florida.