Holiday bell ringer gets bah-humbug treatment

BAYONET POINT - Many people give loose change to the Salvation Army volunteers posted outside shopping centers this time of year ringing bells and keeping watch over their red kettles.

Gerald Warner had this offering: "If you don't stop ringing that bell, I am going to shove it up your a--," he told a volunteer outside Kmart on U.S. 19 Thursday evening, according to a Pasco Sheriff's Office report.

Warner, who is 47 and homeless, was also cursing at customers who were coming and going, the Sheriff's Office said.

A deputy arrested him on a charge of disorderly intoxication. When they arrived at the jail in Land O'Lakes, Warner refused to get out of the patrol car, which led to another charge of resisting arrest without violence.

He remains in jail with bail set at $250.

Molly Moorhead, Times staff writer

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