Florida man accused of setting off his sprinklers at disabled children because he was mad about their bus stop – UK Times

A Florida man was arrested after police say he intentionally set off sprinklers aimed at his disabled neighbors — drenching them twice a day for a year because he was upset about their bus stop location.

Antonio Roman, 61, was arrested Sunday, August 17, at his home in Ocala, a central Florida city about 38 miles south of Gainesville, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office said.

Deputies were first called to the home on April 30, after a neighbor reported that Roman had been using a surveillance system and sprinklers to intentionally spray the family next door since August 8, 2024.

Roman activated his sprinkler system twice a day when two of the victims, who are children with special needs, were being loaded and unloaded from their school bus.

The father of the two victims eventually started wearing “swimming attire” to shield his children from the sprinklers as he helped them to and from their bus, the sheriff’s office said.

Investigators conducted surveillance of Roman’s home and confirmed the sprinkler system was directly pointed at the school bus stop. Deputies also observed that the system would activate when the bus arrived and turn off promptly after it drove away.

When authorities contacted Roman, he told them he was upset that the school bus stop utilized part of his driveway for the wheelchair ramp one of the victims needed.

“When confronted about using the surveillance cameras to track the arrival time and manually activating the sprinklers, Roman admitted that he did this because he was upset that the bus was ‘on [his] side,’” the sheriff’s office said in a release.

Deputies then issued an arrest warrant for Roman, who was at a second home outside of Florida at the time. When he returned, he contacted the sheriff’s office to turn himself in and was taken to the Marion County Jail.

Roman was charged with four counts of stalking, two counts of battery on a disabled person and two counts of battery.

Roman bonded out of jail on Tuesday. He is due back in court on September 16.