Young Anglers Held at Gunpoint for Backyard Fishing

Less than 12 months after a Palm Bay man was arrested for allegedly holding a group of young anglers at gunpoint, a Melbourne woman has been arrested for doing the same.

Both incidents involved Brevard County teenagers who were supposedly trespassing to fish local ponds and lakes, but this latest incident has what the other one did not: video.

Investigators say 59-year-old Donna Elkins caught 13- and 15-year-old boys fishing in her backyard. Like many Florida neighborhoods, Elkins home backs up to a small retaining pond, and the pair of teens had cast a line in hopes of pulling something to shore.

Florida anglers will tell you that this kind of neighborhood fishing is common, but Elkins’ response is not. She grabbed a pellet rifle and stormed out to confront the hoodlums.

An affidavit obtained by local media says that she pointed the weapon at them and threatened to “blow their heads off.”

“The victims stated that they feared for their life and believed that violence was about to take place,” police said. “(Elkins) then by threat ordered the victims onto the ground and stated they could not leave.”

One of the boys took a video of the altercation (from his angle on the grass), and Elkins can be heard berating the teens.

“You don’t just walk into someone’s back yard!” she yells. “Private property! Trespassing!”

Witnesses told police that the boys lay on the ground for about five minutes until Elkins’ husband came out of the home and took the rifle from her. She called police and told dispatch that she had “petrified them” and had “stopped them and they were laying on the ground,” according to the affidavit.

But when police arrived, they found something a little different than what Elkins had described. Rather than trespassing, the boys had been fishing on a small peninsula that was located 30 feet from Elkins’ property line. Reviewing the property on onX, it’s clear that as long as the boys walked from a nearby road along the bank of the pond, they never trespassed on any of the properties along the shore.

Detectives were apparently satisfied that this is what happened because they arrested Elkins on the spot. She was subsequently charged with two counts of aggravated assault and false imprisonment, and released on bond of $25,000.

Believe it or not (and at this point, you should believe it), this isn’t the only recent story of young anglers being harassed in the Sunshine State.

Just a few days before Elkins’ outburst, two teenagers had their fishing pole snapped in half by a railroad police officer.

The pair was fishing from a railroad bridge that crosses the Caloosahatchee River near the town of Tice. The bridge is on an active section of the Seminole Gulf Railway line, and so fishing from the bridge is illegal (not to mention dangerous).

But local media reports that these teens weren’t the only ones fishing from that spot. Residents are also questioning whether the police officer responded appropriately.

Video of the incident shows the officer handing a backpack to one of the boys as he grabs the fishing pole from the other. He snaps the rod in half, throws it in the river, and pulls the boy off the bridge by his arm. The boys were handcuffed for about 10 minutes but ultimately just given a trespassing warning.

The officer has not been identified, but a local nonprofit in Tampa Bay has offered to replace the teen’s fishing gear.

Feature Image: Donna Marie Elkins, Brevard County Sheriff's Office