By John Filbeck
STUART, Florida – A man working as a Salvation Army bell ringer outside at South Florida grocery store on December 23rd is accused of attacking the store manager with his kettle tripod.
Martin County Sheriff’s Deputies said 63-year-old Steven Pavlik was ringing the bell outside a Publix supermarket. But he wasn’t doing the regular ringing that you usually see from the Salvation Army bell ringers. He was drunk ringing, aggressively confronting people walking by, and creating a major disturbance outside the store.
Eventually, the Publix manager spoke to Pavlik, asked him to collect the Salvation Army bucket, tripod and bag, and leave the premises. As the manager escorted Pavlik outside of the store, the intoxicated bell ringer became violent and attempted to impale the manager with the donation kettle tripod. The manager was able to stop the attack and was not hurt.
Pavlik fled the scene, but deputies later found him at his home 2 miles away. When deputies arrested Pavlik, he claimed that “he had a bionic eye” that recorded his interaction with deputies and that he would see them again in federal court.
Pavlik has been charged with Aggravated Assault and Resisting Arrest, and his bond was set at $3000.
