DOCUMENT: Florida, Crime

Woman, 92, Goes Ballistic After Being Denied Kiss

Cops: Pensioner fired four shots at home of crush, 53

Kiss

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MARCH 22--After being denied a kiss yesterday by a neighbor 39 years her junior, a 92-year-old Florida woman allegedly returned to her home, retrieved a .380 semi-automatic handgun, and fired several shots into the man’s residence.

Aged pistolero Helen Staudinger was arrested last night and charged with aggravated assault and firing into an occupied dwelling, according to a Marion County Sheriff’s Office report. Staudinger is pictured in the mug shot at right.

Investigators allege that Staudinger went next door to speak with Dwight Bettner, but her 53-year-old neighbor asked her to leave. In an interview with a sheriff’s deputy, Staudinger said she told Bettner that she would not leave unless he gave her a kiss.

Bettner declined, which triggered an argument between the Fort McCoy residents.

That is when an incensed Staudinger returned to her home, got her gun, and allegedly fired into Bettner’s residence. Bettner, who was hit by flying debris, was not seriously injured by the gunfire.

Staudinger told a cop that she had planned to “shoot his car that he loved so much.” Investigators believe that she instead “fired diagonally through the victim’s carport hitting the house with all four rounds fired.”

Bettner told police that he has had “on-going issues with Ms. Staudinger and feels that she is enamored with him.” He added that he had previously told his neighbor that he had a girlfriend, “at which time Ms. Staudinger allegedly threatened to shoot him.”

A sheriff’s deputy reported that she recovered Staudinger’s weapon--with a bullet in the chamber--from an end table in the nonagenarian’s living room.

Staudinger, facing a pair of felonies, is being held in the county lockup in lieu of $15,000 bond. (4 pages)

Comments (50)

She needs psychiatric evaluation and care.
Hold on there, RU...do we know WHERE she wanted that kiss?
with a face like that she's probably still a virgin
I love this kind of stuff, pure entertainment. Dam I miss the Jerry Springer Show!!!!!!!!!!!
Funny, Dwight said next he will be on the Springer show.....Jerry Jerry....I AM the girlfriend and the woman needs serious help. For those of you feeling pity for her, snap out of it. That was methodical. She had to go back in her house to retrieve the firearm. and really......41 or 92.....which one would you want? Blonde, slim and pretty or old wore out and ...I just dont even have anything nice to say to describe her...she needs help.....and to be in elderly care facility if her 4 useless children don't want to be around her. She acted like a 5 yr old child who did not get her way. She wasn't trying to shoot his car.....she was closer to the car than the house so she shouldn't have missed and she knew what room he was in because he had just asked her to leave. Thank goodness here in Fla. a felony takes the right of firearm possession away from those convicted. He didn't and doesn't want her. Here is your get over it and move on sign. He is nice enough to move away not only for his own safety but it also makes it where she doesn't have to move out of her home. She is a dumbass..period and has no one to blame for her actions but herself. She deserves everything she gets....including paying restitution for damages. Before this happened we jokingly called her the stalker. I had told him he needed to set her straight and make it clear. Thats what happens sometimes when you try to be nice to an elderly person and then have to be kind of rude to get a message across. I am happy....he is safe. Can any of you imagine what could have happened had I been there with my 12 yr old daughter ? Exactly. 92 or 29 is right.....imagine it happening to someone you love how would you feel then?
Oh ***COME ON*** Zettie, all the guy had to do was plant a smacker of the old lady's cheek, and make her day. He couldn't do that? What a ***SCUM BAG*** of a guy.
Young women are getting proposed to and sometimes felt up by old men all the time. True, we seldom get shut at, but such occasions don't make the news. I feel sorry for the old lady. Lucky for all, she is a bad shot.
Getting shot at is actually a pretty big deal.
Come on people do none of you have common sense, this woman doesnt have a rap, shes 92!!! i seriously doubt she would have behaved the same way if she was 40-70 and had a fully functional mind. its very common for someone so elderly to act a little crazy they have problems you youngins havent even begun to comprehend or expieriance .... i mean does this woman suffer from dementia? or some other elderly affliction i be willing to bet money she is.... Her ungratful know it all children / grandchildren prolly dont give her the time of day and prolly dont give her proper care
Hey why don't you come on. Anyone, I mean ANYONE, who fires a gun (thank god no one was hurt) regardless of their age, 92 or 29, has some mental problems. I don't usually see other 90 or even 80 or 70 year olds, with or without mental problems, going around and shooting people because of he/she was rejected. This woman should get locked up because she is a danger to society. Her age or mental state are irrelevant and can not be used as an excuse to disregard her dangerous behavior and tendencies...I mean she could have KILLED SOMEONE!
That's disgusting. I've heard of the neighbor from hell but this is ridiculous.
That guy should have just told her that he was gay. As obviously, saying he has a girlfriend is just going to make her jealous.
I feel sorry for her...she is very lonely
I am appalled at the disgraceful way in which this situation is being addressed by the media, courts, and public. I work for a restorative justice organization which deals in elder issues. The lack of understanding regarding the sensitivity, privacy, and dignity of this elder is shameful. To be openly critized and shamed in this manner is deplorable. Yes, her actions were not acceptable, but did not warrent this open public humiliation. Everyone is not privy to all the circumstances involving this incidence. It saddens me that people are so quick to judge without knowing the full story. Is it not in the American system that you innocent until proven guilty?
Wow, your dumb. She very easily could of killed the guy or some innocent kid riding a bike or something. Your pathetic attempt make the prepatrator a victim is proof that you are a liberal whack job. This moron, old and female, deserves to die in jail before she kills someone.
Wow, you're really unbelievably f***ing stupid aren't you? It's "you're" not "your" you idiot. It's "perpetrator", not "prepatrator" you uneducated imbecile. And to top it all off you have no mercy whatsoever do you? Surely with your lack of compassion and understanding you'll never live to be 92. Lets hope so. People like you make me question Darwin's theory because there is no reason for your existence. You should have been dead from some self-inflicted dumb*** mistake by now. Please tell me you didn't have children. Maybe we'll get lucky and you'll be executed for jaywalking. Do you live in Texas maybe? I hear they execute lots of stupid people.
Oh please. Had this article been about a 35 year old woman you probably would not have stopped to think just how badly the women was feeling shamed and publicaly criticized. Places that help the elderly, such as your job, spend significant time trying to get the public to treat the elderly as fairly as the young are. Now your saying that because she is elderly she is being unfairly treated by the media for reporting on what she did. Instead of being incensed that someone wrote an article about her arrest and made her a target of some jokes I would think that this report would be bettered used to point out how some elderly need caregivers who can deal with things better so great great grandma isn't running about the neighborhood with a loaded gun demanding sexual favors from men at an age where if they had both been 40 years younger she would have been arrested for child abuse. You can't have it both ways. I don't see that anyone has found her guilty without due process even though the report is pretty clear that there is no question about who did what. This happens in many cases - what happens is so straight forward that it leaves little room to think a person innocent. Lets be honest here, her age is going to matter in that she will be handled differently by the courts because of her age, and to her benefit. Unlike a 35-year old I bet she ends up OR'ed from jail once this goes to a judge - because of her age. And the fact is that she probably won't get any jail time or more then a slap on the wrist because of her age - unlike a 35-year old who probably will go to jail and has no reason to not having to post her own bail. Yes, what happened, after the fact is embarrassing. Stop and wonder just how many women from age 15 through 75 are embarrassed about being arrested and having the media run the story. Of course anyone arrested is going to be humiliated by an arrest, but that should not change because of age.
RE: "It saddens me that people are so quick to judge without knowing the full story." Where do we find the "full" story? And what other details could possibly justify firing 4 bullets at someone's home in the manner she did? If one of those bullets had penetrated the victim's head or heart, would the "full" story matter one iota? RE: "Is it not in the American system that you innocent until proven guilty?" The reality is that you're presumed guilty until you can prove yourself innocent.
Uh, there's really no explanation that would make her actions acceptable. She would have received the same media attention if she were fifty years younger. Stupid criminals are stupid criminals.
Hey Chicago Nick: Loser. Cheers.
She's still going to get that kiss, and more, when she gets out of jail...
I'm missing something here, why is this going to be so? You know her? Sincerely, Darnko
He's lucky she only wanted a kiss. She's got a mini-gun handy for when she's denied the old innie-outtie.
Maybe her retirement plan ran out and she is looking for a place to stay. In jail she would get three good meals, a warm bed and roof over her head that she does not have to pay for, free medical, dental and vision coverage. Someone else cleans. All her clothes will be provided. What more could you ask for. And to top it off if (when) she dies she wont have any funeral costs.
Everyone posting here,damn well knows they would enjoy making out with her and get all excited and horny while doing so. If you guys french kiss her, she might even give you a little. Happy dreams casanova....
She is obviously not clearheaded. None of you boneheads know any of the details of this. I gotta say, she gets props for "putting her face on" before leaving the house. Nothing a sculptured brow and a handgun won't cure.
Perhaps she thought he was a frog!
just kiss her - I'm sure the guy's had worse
Did you see the picture? I don't think there IS worse!
@bondservant1958 on Tue, 2011-03-22 16:17.... Are you an optician as well as a "Clairvoyant"??
Hey....Do you think she really gives a shiat at 92 yrs old!!!!
Did anyone check her pulse?
Probably one of the growing segment of old maids in the population who THOUGHT they didn't need men or children for that matter, end up growing old, bitter and wicked all alone and this is the result. Used to be that being a single old woman like this was a social no no unless widowed with children at least to take care of them in this advanced age. Being called 'an old maid' was like being called the c word. Now half the chick population is worthy of that moniker. Or he was bilking her for dough in her younger days in her 80's lolol and she's pissed for being dissed and robbed...
I think I see where you're going with this, Chicago Nick.......she might be one of those Feminazis and there are more and more of them these days. I think you may regret using the c word analogy, though.
Jerk.
My aren't you creative. Chick population? That sounds like a pretty big leap. I'm guessing you think women will later feel bad for not wanting YOU.
Granny got a gun! She had gone to the trouble of putting her eyebrows on and the neighbor man still spurned her. I wonder what she was like when she was younger?
you can see it in her eyes....loneliness....years and years.....and years
I think we all might go a little nutty after many sexless decades.
It doesn't take a decade.
TSG thinks they're being all cool using the word nonagenarian...but then they misspelled it.
Editor asleep! Editor asleep! It's nonagenarian, not nanogenarian.
Beat me to it, lol.
She looks a lot like Maureen Dowd of the New Yory Times but better looking.
This lady needs commitment to a mental hospital. She seems to have dimentia.
I don't think being horny is a sign of a demented person. Even shooting at his house, I think a horny teenager put in same situation could easily do this and worse. I go along with the loneliness followed up with rejection after she was feeling amorous and followed through with this by courting her next door neighbor.
Hey this is what society says is appropriate. If a female decides a male belongs to her then she has the right to do anything she wants. In court, she can have his kids, decide to raise the kid(s) on her own and send him a monthlu bill for 20 years, all the time making sure he has no say. If she doesn't want to have sex with him, it does not mean he is allowed to go elsewhere. If he just dated her and wants to see another woman she can smash up his truck, slash tires, cut leather seats-just listen to the hit Carey Underware song, and if he has sex with her and gets satisfied and she does not, she can cut his pecker off and throw it in a yard as she drives away knowing all she will get is probation. (Lorena Bobbit) This old lady threw 4 95grain slugs at 1050 ft per sec in the direction of people. Attempted murder, 10 years in prison. Make Carey Underware pay for her attorneys and then throw Underware in Jail for inciting a riot.
That nasty SOB has been hitting on this lady for many years and now starts cheating on her because she is maturing a bit? He got what he deserved, when she comes home he better have some flowers and Viagra.
I don't get why people are assuming that they were sexually involved in the past. Where does it say that in the article? Am I just not seeing it?
Why wouldn't the guy kiss her? She is a real GILF!