When long-standing neighborhood feuds finally boil over, the weapon of choice usually isn’t a low-speed, battery-powered recreational vehicle. But this is Florida, and in the Sunshine State, the golf cart reigns supreme.
Bruce Gittleman, a resident of the Hacienda Village neighborhood in Winter Springs, Florida, is currently facing a felony assault charge after allegedly attempting to run down his neighbor with a golf cart following a decade-long dispute.
The incident, which originally occurred in June 2026, was recently thrust back into the spotlight after local station WKMG News 6 released the newly obtained police bodycam footage ahead of Gittleman’s upcoming trial scheduling.
The 911 Call and the “Statement”
The chaotic afternoon began when a deeply exasperated neighbor dialed 911.
“This guy who’s been harassing me for about 10 years just tried to run me over with his golf cart,” the victim reported to dispatchers.
When the 911 operator asked if the golf cart actually made contact, the victim clarified the suspect’s bizarre intimidation tactics. “No, he usually gets close and then veers off just to make a statement,” the neighbor explained.
When Winter Springs Police officers arrived on the scene, they questioned Gittleman as he sat casually in the driver’s seat of his red golf cart. Gittleman completely downplayed the severity of the encounter, blaming the victim for instigating the situation while doing yard work.
“He turned around, he came back out in the street with the mower, and he’s yelling at me as I’m riding by,” Gittleman told the police. “That’s the extent of it”.
The officer didn’t buy the excuse. “What I’m hearing is that he called you [a] name and then you drove too close to him. Okay?” the officer summarized.
“That’s what happened,” Gittleman admitted.
Unlicensed and Unhinged
Driving a vehicle directly at a pedestrian is a massive legal problem on its own, but the officers quickly realized Gittleman had another issue: he shouldn’t have been behind the wheel of the golf cart in the first place.
When the officer asked if he possessed a valid driver’s license, Gittleman simply replied, “Uh, no”.
“No one ever told me that,” Gittleman argued when the officer explained that a valid license was legally required.
“This area in here is not a private driveway, and it’s not a recreational area,” the officer corrected him. “So you do have to have a Class E operator license to drive the golf cart”.
Things went from bad to worse when the officer formally announced the arrest. “It’s going to be assault with a deadly weapon,” the officer told Gittleman as he placed him in handcuffs. “We have a witness, and also our victim is also saying that you tried to hit him with a golf cart”.
According to the official police report shown in the footage, Gittleman is no stranger to local law enforcement. The report notes that he has a “history of disturbances,” including prior arrests for battery and trespassing within the Hacienda Village community.
Currently, based on the records from the Seminole County Clerk of Court as of late September 2026, the felony aggravated assault case has officially entered “trial posture”. Gittleman is expected to appear in court later this week for his trial scheduling to answer for weaponizing his neighborhood cruiser.