Have we reached peak pickleball yet? Some of us are obviously taking it a little too seriously . . .
A Florida couple is facing charges after they got into a huge pickle-BRAWL the other day.
It happened Sunday at a country club in Port Orange, near Daytona Beach. Someone called 911 and said 20 people were in a physical fight on a pickleball court. At least some of them were seniors.
63-year-old Anthony Sapienza got arrested. He apparently started the fight over a rules violation. He accused another player of stepping in the “kitchen,” an area right by the net.
(You can’t hit the ball out of the air from the kitchen. It has to bounce first. It’s so you can’t just slam everything.)
According to police, they had words. Then after the match, Anthony called the other player’s wife the C-WORD. (!!!)
The guy defended her. Then Anthony PUNCHED him in the face and hit him with a pickleball paddle. Paramedics took the guy to a hospital for a cut over his eye that caused “significant bleeding.”
Cops say Anthony also punched another guy in the nose, and pushed a 70-year-old woman to the ground.
His 51-year-old wife Julianne apparently got in on it too. She’s facing a felony charge for battery on a person 65 or older.
He’s facing two felony charges for the same thing, plus one for aggravated battery causing bodily harm. They’re due in court March 3rd.
(Here are their mugshots, and the 911 call.)
(People)
