WINTER HAVEN, March 3, 2004 - A weekend food fight at a Polk County nursing home ended with three
people in the hospital. There were no serious injuries in what started as a salad bar spat.
Inside one of Winter Haven's upscale retirement communities is something you'd normally only see in
elementary school lunchrooms. Police say several Spring Haven Retirement Home residents, old enough
to know better, got into an old fashioned food fight. Police say a 62-year-old man was picking
through the salad with his hands - a practice that didn't sit too well with the others in the buffet
line. Then the fists started flying.
Authorities say the 62-year-old punched an 86-year-old in the mouth for complaining and bit a 78-year-
old on the arm for trying to break up the fight.
Then the 62-year-old's 80-something mother tried to break up the fray and got cut on the arm in
the process.
When the salad settled, no one wanted to press charges.
"We would press charges normally, but when every one signs a waiver that's involved it's fruitless
to go ahead and proceed further," said Winter Haven PD spokesman J.J. Stanton.
Another 82-year-old man who had nothing to do with the salad bar struggle fell down in the fray and
cut his head, but he too is okay. Police say they consider the case closed.