OCALA, Fla. (WSVN) — A Central Florida woman is accused of spraying young girls with bear mace after she became irate with them for playing next door, investigators said.
An arrest report said 81-year old Ada Anderson of Ocala sprayed the bear mace on the children as they were blowing bubbles in their front yard, Friday.
“My baby don’t want to come outside and play. Like, they’re scared now,” said April Morant, the girls’ mother.
Morant, who lives next door to Anderson, said she couldn’t believe what was happening to her young daughters, ages 3 and 6.
“I look, like, in my peripheral view, she’s at the gate with, I thought – at first I thought it was a gun,” said Morant. “A big old cloud came. So I rushed the kids like ‘Go in the house, go in house.’ And so, then I called the police on her.”
Bear mace or spray is a chemical irritant that repels bears when out in the wilderness and can be toxic if ingested by humans, let alone children.
The arrest report also stated that Anderson was yelling profanities and racist slurs at the children as well.
“Where it gets me upset, my 3-year-old don’t know anything about anything racial, so when she’s saying this stuff — my 3-year-old [is] waving, speaking —and you’re over here calling her little names,” said Morant.
Morant claims the harassment started several months ago when her family moved in.
“We ignore her, because this is an everyday occurrence since November,” she said. “I want to move from by her. I just don’t feel safe and with the stuff that happened.”
This is not Anderson’s first arrest for harassing a neighbor.
She was also charged with aggravated assault and stalking back in 2019.
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