A 92-year-old Florida woman was arrested after she shot her neighbor after he refused to kiss her. Helen Staudinger had the hots for 53-year-old Dwight Bettner but he didn’t feel the same. When he told her as much, she picked up a semi-automatic pistol and decided to fire at his house four times. Thankfully, no one was hurt.
- Bettner could have been killed. As he told Reuters after the incident: “If my head would have been over just a little bit further, [a bullet] probably would have hit me in the back of the head.” Luckily, the bullets missed him entirely and he sustained no injuries.
- Staudinger had a crush on Bettner for a while. According to Bettner, who’s a former police officer and boilermaker, Staudinger had been flirting with him since he’d moved in six months prior. He’d tried to be nice to her since she was older and on her own. “I’ve taken her trash out for her, just neighborly stuff,” he said. “I guess she just took that as something else.”
- However, she eventually refused to be rejected by him. Bettner told Marion County Sheriff’s deputies that he told Staudinger he had a girlfriend to put her off, but instead, she threatened to shoot him. However, a few days later, she showed up at his house and refused to leave, saying, “I want a kiss before I leave.” He again told her no and ordered her to leave his property and go back home. A few minutes later, he heard gunshots while he was on the phone with his father.
- One of the bullets went through the window. Bettner was sprayed with glass from the broken window of one of the bullets. Staudinger also fired at Bettner’s new Mitsubishi 3000GT “that he loved so much,” she admitted to police.
- Staudinger was arrested and booked. She was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and shooting into a dwelling for the incident, which happened in the town of Fort McCoy, roughly 20 miles away from Ocala.
- Bettner now plans to move away from the home. The house is rented, and Bettner is ready to get out of dodge. “I just don’t need the stress or the hassle,” he said. “I thought this only happened to younger people.”
