Irresponsible Gun Owner of the Day: Stan Nguyen

You don’t have to be Willard Scott to know it’s been a hot summer so far. And that makes air conditioning serious bidness right now. Just ask the two+ million or so in the eastern half of the country who are still shvitzing without power after some weekend storms knocked them off the grid. So when Stan Nguyen of Deltona, Florida came to the conclusion that the HVAC tech he’d called ruined his A/C unit, he got a little hot under the collar. Daytona Beach’s news-journalonline.com reports that, “Repairman Sean Hickman had gone to Nguyen’s house at the 2300 block of Statler Terrace on Friday to repair the unit, a report shows. When Hickman began explaining the unit’s problem to Nguyen, the homeowner became angry and refused to pay Hickman, the report shows.” And things only went south from there . . .

When repairman Hickman tried to hand Stan a bill for his services, that was pretty much all the unhappy homeowner could take. He figured it was time to Stan and deliver.

Hickman said he attempted to give Nguyen an invoice for the work; on the 9-1-1 call made by Hickman, the repairman also told Nguyen that he would be hearing from his attorney.

At that point, Nguyen pulled out a gun and pointed it at the ground, attempting to fire the weapon, the report shows. The safety was on the weapon though and it did not fire.

Nguyen was apparently inviting Hickman to stay until his A/C was working again. And he really didn’t want to take no for an answer.

But then Nguyen removed the safety and that’s when Hickman took cover behind his van. Hickman called for help and said Nguyen was pointing the gun in his direction and threatening to shoot him if he tried to leave, the report says.

Fortunately, someone from the Volusia County sheriff’s office turned up and cooled things down a little. But only enough to arrest Mr. Nguyen who’ll now be defending himself against a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. And we certainly hope the Volusia County jail is air conditioned because, given the sticky heat in that part of Florida this time of year, we’re concerned about the finish on the IGOTD trophy we’ll be sending his way.