Men accused of assaulting neighbour dressed like a pirate

Larry Harcar was swaggering down his street in Florida last week in full "Pirates of the Caribbean" regalia: Bearded, in black and with a toy gun and sword. It's what he likes doing this time of year for entertainment, he told authorities. The fun ended when Harcar, 49, found himself face down on the ground with two loaded pistols pointed at his head. The guns were in the hands of two startled neighbours from three doors away, the Broward Sheriff's Office said, who were fearful of the "pirate's" appearance.

The drama began on Wednesday afternoon, when Harcar was spotted by Ahmed Othman, 24, and Muhamad Ahmad, 22, who were home in Dania Beach. Harcar's outfit "scared" Othman, Sheriff's Detective Stephanie Newton said in a report. "They felt the man was acting peculiar," Othman's lawyer, Lawrence Hashish, said. "The man had a gun and a sword, and they didn't know they were toys." So Othman and Ahmad armed themselves and warned a security guard there was a man going around dressed in a costume.

 

Several neighbours and a security guard called 911. Othman and Ahmad drove around looking for Harcar, who they saw in a hallway of their apartment complex, the Sheriff's Office said. Pointing their guns, the pair told Harcar to put up his hands and get on the ground. When he complied, one of the men put Harcar's hands behind his back, placed a knee in the back of his neck and held a gun to Harcar's head. The other man also pointed his weapon at the prone man's skull, Newton wrote.

There were also verbal threats made to Harcar, according to the report. In a sworn statement, Harcar told authorities he was just walking home to fix his costume, and that he feared the men were going to kill him, according to Newton. Othman and Ahmad were each charged with aggravated assault with a firearm, battery and false imprisonment. They were released from a Broward County Jail on Thursday on $8,500 bond each. Neither man has a criminal record, according to state records. "They're the ones who called 911 and security," Hashish said. "All of this is really just a misunderstanding." At his apartment, with a bird squawking in the background, Harcar declined comment.