{"id":128846,"date":"2026-01-23T06:36:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T06:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/128846\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T06:36:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T06:36:08","slug":"florida-man-charged-with-felony-after-allegedly-hurling-ketchup-packet-at-good-samaritan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/128846\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida man charged with felony after allegedly hurling ketchup packet at good Samaritan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>He was caught red-handed.<\/p>\n<p>A Florida man is facing up to five years behind bars after allegedly attacking a victim with an open ketchup packet at a bus station.<\/p>\n<p>Austin Simmons, 28, was passed out at the PSTA Grand Central Station in St. Petersburg on Tuesday night when a concerned passerby stopped to check on him to \u201csee if he was okay,\u201d according to an arrest affidavit.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:0.8005618;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38262625\" width=\"285\" height=\"356\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/ketchupmug26.jpg\" alt=\"Austin Simmons was arrested at a Florida bus terminal for allegedly attacking a bystander with a ketchup packet.\" class=\"wp-image-38262625\"  \/>Austin Simmons was arrested at a Florida bus terminal for allegedly attacking a bystander with a ketchup packet. Pinellas County Jail<\/p>\n<p>Simmons \u2014 identified by police as homeless \u2014 allegedly \u201cwoke up irate\u201d and aggressively advanced toward the would-be good Samaritan.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe defendant walked in the direction the victim was standing and threw an open ketchup packet at the victim,\u201d police said.<\/p>\n<p>Simmons\u2019 alleged victim was left with \u201ctwo spots of ketchup on his jacket,\u201d while police noted an open condiment packet was \u201cpouring out on the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The condiment culprit told officers he was only trying to \u201cgive the victim a ketchup packet,\u201d and denied any attempt to strike him, police said.<\/p>\n<p>The roughly 0.3-ounce packet was not collected as evidence, according to the affidavit.<\/p>\n<p>Simmons was charged with one count of felony battery.<\/p>\n<p>Though the incident would typically be handled as a misdemeanor, his past ketchup-ed to him, with the charge being elevated to a third-degree felony because he had a 2019 battery conviction.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.46494993;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38262624\" width=\"864\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/051223heinzketchup1CS.jpg\" alt=\"told officers he was only trying to \u201cgive the victim a ketchup packet,\u201d \" class=\"wp-image-38262624\"  \/>Simmons told officers he was only trying to \u201cgive the victim a ketchup packet.\u201d  Christopher Sadowski<\/p>\n<p>Arrest records do not specify the circumstances of his prior battery conviction.<\/p>\n<p>Simmons was also charged with drug possession after a search uncovered a small amount of a chalky substance police identified as cocaine.<\/p>\n<p>The sauce-slinging suspect was booked into the Pinellas County Jail on a $5,000 bond on both the battery and drug charges.<\/p>\n<p>At an initial court hearing, he was ordered to have no contact with his alleged victim.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He was caught red-handed. A Florida man is facing up to five years behind bars after allegedly attacking&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128847,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4864,12896,5686,63674,265,5558,28,30,3475,29,4278],"class_list":{"0":"post-128846","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-arrests","9":"tag-assaults","10":"tag-battery","11":"tag-condiments","12":"tag-crime","13":"tag-drugs","14":"tag-florida","15":"tag-florida-headlines","16":"tag-florida-man","17":"tag-florida-news","18":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}