Inset: Charmaine Borger (St. Lucie County Sheriff”s Office). Background: Borger’s residence in Port St. Lucie, Fla. (Google Maps).
A Florida woman is behind bars after threatening to kill a cable company employee who was trying to install fiber-optic equipment in her front yard, Sunshine State police say.
Charmaine Borger, 65, stands accused of one count of simple assault – threatening violence, and one count of resisting arrest – without violence, according to the Port St. Lucie Police Department.
Late last week, police were called to a disturbance at the defendant’s residence on Southwest Ardmore Street in Port St. Lucie – a large, coastal city located some 50 miles north of West Palm Beach.
Officers at the scene were advised the worker “arrived to do a job” but was intercepted by the homeowner “threatening to shoot him with a handgun,” according to an arrest affidavit obtained by Law&Crime.
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The alleged threats did not, however, end there.
The worker told law enforcement he was accessing an easement on Borger’s property to install a concrete fiber-optics box in the ground when the woman approached “and began being belligerent,” according to the affidavit. Borger allegedly asked to him provide her a copy of the permit but the worker refused – saying he could show the document to her but would not give her a copy.
Borger then allegedly said: “This is my land, you can not do this,” according to the affidavit, and asked for a copy of the permit again.
Again, the worker declined. This time, Borger allegedly replied: “Don’t play with me I’ll go get my axe and chop you.”
Upon that alleged threat, the worker called police.
As the pair waited for law enforcement to arrive, the defendant allegedly continued to speak to the worker along such lines.
“You better leave, I do have a gun. Ima go get it if you don’t leave,” the woman allegedly said. “Boy, you’re tall, but don’t play with me. I’ll go get my gun if you don’t leave right now.”
As the worker began speaking with 911 dispatch, Borger allegedly added: “If you don’t leave, you’re a dead man,” according to the affidavit.
The worker had disregarded Borger by this point, according to law enforcement. In response, the homeowner allegedly said: “You’re not going to leave? I’m telling you Ima go get my gun and shoot you. This is my land I pay $8,000 on house fees; you better leave now.”
A witness at the scene also described hearing Borger “cursing” and issuing “threats” – which prompted her to record part of the incident. The witness echoed the permit-requesting part of the dispute and said she saw the homeowner call the employee “derogatory names.”
At one point, the witness said she saw the defendant point to the hole in the ground and say: “This is my property, if I was to put a bomb in here I can,” according to the affidavit. The worker replied she could not, in fact, plant a bomb in the ground. Then, Borger allegedly got even more “belligerent,” police say – citing the witness.
“You don’t tell me what to do,” the defendant allegedly told the cable company worker. “I will kill you.”
Borger, for her part, allegedly told police she had not received any notice about the installation and “expressed frustration” why a cable company “which she does not use as a service provider” was “conducting work on her property without her consent,” according to the affidavit. The homeowner went on to express concerns “about the safety of the installation” because “she did not know what was being placed underground and feared it could be hazardous,” the charging document reads.
The defendant is currently being detained in the St. Lucie County Jail on $750 bond, records show.
