Why Disneyworld Belongs In Orlando
From WKMG again, this time from their police beat: Palm Frond Used As Weapon In ‘Most Bizarre’ Central Fla. Store Robbery
Police said Gelando Olivieri attempted to rob the V&F Discount Beverage store in DeLand by threatening harm with a spiked Spanish bayonet, a palmetto-like plant with sharp points on its leaves.
“The man came in with the branch. I have never seen anything like this,” owner Goutam Sarkar told the DeLand-Deltona Beacon Thursday.
Surveillance video showed Olivieri wildly waving the palm frond in front of a worker’s face.
Investigators said Olivieri threatened to use the leaves to stab if he wasn’t given $50.
“(The plant) was sharp,” Sarkar said.
Before any money was exchanged, Oliveiri was chased out of the store by a man armed with a bar stool.
Oliveri was arrested a short time after the crime and charged with armed robbery.
A correction for their reporter – Spanish bayonet is not a member of the palm family, Arecaceae. It is yucca aloifolia, a member of the family Agavaceae.
The guys at Floridata also note:
They don’t call it Spanish bayonet because it’s named after Señor Bayonet! The tips of the leaves are pointed and sharp! Do not plant Spanish bayonet near walkways, patios or in areas frequented by children and pets. This plant can inflict painful puncture wounds even through heavy clothing!
Normally is is used under windows to discourage would be burglars. I had to dig it up on the North side of my house to protect the cats. It is a nasty piece of work, but no match for a bar stool.
2 comments
With fronds like those…
One nearby apartment complex has a row of those or similar plants right along the public sidewalk that runs from my complex to the local grocer, and they take no trouble to trim the plants out of the sidewalk. When pedestrians pass going opposite directions, one of them gets scraped. The street is a major thoroughfare; stepping out in the street is not an option. I keep hoping an easily annoyed attorney will walk there and take offense.
One of my neighbor’s “cats on a rope” got dangled in the one by my house, which is why it had to go, and you have to dig them up or they’ll come back.
People need to show a little common sense where they plant these things and cacti.