Ventura County – Sometimes a man just needs his cup of coffee. In the case of Ventura County transient 40-year-old Justin Haggard, not getting that cup of Joe apparently makes him crankier than usual.
According to Ventura County Sheriff’s Department spokesperson Tricia Tucker, it was late on the night of March 12th when Haggard walked into the lobby of a Camarillo hotel and suggested to the desk clerk that he might very much enjoy a cup of hot coffee on such a cool evening. But when he was informed by the receptionist that there was no hot coffee available, “he became agitated.”
So “agitated” was Haggard, that he allegedly “picked up on object from the hotel’s counter” and hurled it with some apparent accurate velocity “at the receptionist’s face.” Either taken by surprise or suffering from poor instinctual reflexes, the receptionist stood there and caught the object flush on the mug, suffering “minor injury.”
Feeling no apparent remorse for such a violent reaction, before he made his way off the premises, “Haggard threatened to return and harm the receptionist,” as though being smacked in the face with a thrown object wasn’t harm enough.
At that point, Haggard made good his exit from the hotel lobby, whereupon the victim promptly dialed 911 Emergency and summoned law enforcement to the scene.
Responding deputies accessed the hotel’s video surveillance recordings and recognized Haggard “from prior contacts.” It didn’t take local area patrol deputies long to locate Haggard and take him into custody, transporting him to Ventura County Jail, where he was booked on a charge of assault with a deadly weapon and where he may be more successful in finding his cup of coffee.
