Posted on 12/10/2007 5:35:18 PM PST by MotleyGirl70
ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- Channel 9 was the only station there as a 63-year-old grandmother was released from the Orange County jail Monday morning. Mary Ann Richardson of Pennsylvania was arrested for trying to take a loaded handgun into a Disney theme park.
Richardson told Eyewitness News it was all a misunderstanding and she just forgot the gun was in her purse. Eyewitness News checked and it was Richardson's first run in with the law.
At home in Pennsylvania, neighbors know Richardson as a small town community activist. Monday morning, the 63-year-old walked out of the Orange County jail holding the same purse she tried to take inside a Disney theme park.
Richardson was headed inside Magic Kingdom with her daughter and three young grandchildren Sunday when security screeners found a loaded .32-caliber handgun at the bottom of her bag, along with a pocket knife and a pair of scissors.
"I forget a lot of things. That might sound silly and stupid, but I did not remember that the pistol was down there," Richardson told Eyewitness News after her released.
Other Disney World vacationers said they're not buying Richardson's story.
"I would know if there was a gun in mine. I know everything that's in my purse. So I hope the law handles her in a good way so she'll think twice before she does something like that again," a Disney visitor told Eyewitness News.
Richardson doesn't have a permit to carry the gun, but said she carries it for protection back home and she never had plans to hurt or scare anyone at the park.
"There was never any intent to malicious behavior or criminal behavior," she said.
Channel 9 learned Richardson is a community activist in a small town where she lives near Scranton, Pennsylvania. In 2001, she helped get an old battery plant cleaned up that's since been shut down. But now she's been arrested for a crime that could land her in jail for a while.
"I apologize sincerely and deeply and I apologize for embarrassing my daughter and her family," a tearful Richardson said.
Richardson doesn't have a court date set for the concealed weapon charge. Monday morning, she was trying to figure out how to get back home to Pennsylvania. She couldn't get in touch with her daughter, who Richardson drove to Orlando with.
Google it. Here’s one.
"A 32-year-old woman told authorities she was attacked about 5 a.m. in a network of service tunnels beneath the theme park."
Publication Date: 09-MAY-99
Florida law says that out of state visitors can carry a concealed weapon if they have a valid CCW permit from their home state. She didn't. That's what made it illegal.
Oh, I didn't know the statues of limitations had run out. I'm sure the victim feels better now, it was soooo long ago and all.
I doubt the attacker has been hiding in the tunnels for 8 years.
That's all.
And the poster was talking about a current danger.
"I forget a lot of things.
Good grief, what else does she normally carry in her purse?
If it’s anything like Texas, if a business posts a no carry sign at the entrance, it automatically becomes a felony.
I don’t suppose you have anything in the way of proof to offer up about these assaults?
Why? She probably carries all the time, and didn’t think about whether she needed to screen the contents of her purse before heading into an amusement park. My carry gun lives in a pocket in my handbag and I don’t give it much thought. I once was visiting my mother who lives near Washington DC and we took the subway into the city to go one of the museums. Got there and saw a big sign at the entrance about all the things you can’t bring in, along with a security screening station where all bags were being checked, and realized at that point that my gun was where it always was. Couldn’t go put it in the car because we’d taken the subway. I doubt Disney has such a prominent sign or menacing looking uniformed guards screening all visitors, and the huge crowds that are the norm at Disney’s entrance would distract a lot of people from noticing anything but a massive sign and blaring audio warnings.
That’s why there is a thing called “google”
What would you like me to do, shove my Aunt through your screen to tell you personally?
Article says she doesn’t have a carry permit. I suspect that’s the reason she got arrested instead of just turned away at the entrance.
And Texas is really, massively, majorly screwed up in that respect. What the heck happened to you guys, anyway? You used to be real men down there.
Here’s off-limits places in Florida:
http://licgweb.doacs.state.fl.us/weapons/possession.html
If it’s true she didn’t have a CCW valid in Florida, she’s up a creek and her only real hope is a favorable ruling in the Parker case and a challenge to the constitutional validity of concealed carry licensing law.
So lets see if I understand this correctly. To go to Disney’s hell on earth. You must be searched. Or do you go through a metal detector or what. Another reason to avoid the Disney experience besides that special day they have each year where all the people are so happy and gay. And by the way who arrested her. Local police or Disney cops Mickey and Pluto.
Given the fact that Orlando Florida has substantially more crime per capita that LA, California...I don’t blame her one bit.
ping
At one time she lived right in Palm Beach - she got the hell out of there too...
Maybe she forgot about that felony conviction too
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