Door-to-door popcorn-selling Cub Scouts menaced by sword-wielding man

A man wielding a large sword menaced a group of Cub Scouts who knocked on his door as they sought to sell popcorn in a fundraising drive, Wisconsin police report.



After the children knocked on the door of his Sparta residence, Owen Reese, 22, “opened the door holding a sword above his head and immediately began yelling” at them, according to police. While holding the sword over his head and “motioning like he was going to swing it at them.”



Reese got within five feet of the Cub Scouts before they “escaped unharmed.” When officers arrived at Reese’s residence, he again answered the door “holding a sword with both hands at shoulder height.” He dropped the weapon when the officers levelled their guns at him.



A subsequent search of Reese’s home turned up “a large number of knives and swords, as well as marijuana and several smoking devices.” Reese was arrested for reckless endangerment and cited for “drug related offences.” During questioning by Sparta Police Department officers, Reese explained that his sword-wielding was commonplace: “Reese told officers he always answers the door with a sword to protect himself against religious people.”