A Gillette woman was ticketed this week after she smeared honey on her son’s front doorknob in an attempt to “sweeten him up,” a Campbell County sheriff’s lieutenant told Cowboy State Daily on Friday.
The unidentified 90-year-old woman and her 59-year-old son have regularly been in conflict in recent years, according to Sheriff’s Lt. Paul Pownall. The two live in different houses on the same property.
“We were called on Wednesday by the son, who wanted to report his mother had come onto his part of the property and slathered something on his doorknob,” he said. “He has cameras on portions of the property, so he could identify that it was his mother.”
When a sheriff’s deputy arrived, he observed a honey-like substance on the doorknob. After speaking with the mother, she confirmed she had smeared honey on the doorknob in attempt to “sweeten her son up,” Pownall said.
He added that the sheriff’s department was hesitant to ticket the elderly woman for any crime, but her son was “adamant” that something be done about her action.
“She was issued a citation for destruction of property and the value was $5 for the clean-up,” Pownall said. “He was insistent that she be cited.”
The son cleaned the honey off of the doorknob.
While the sheriff’s office is familiar with both the mother and son, Pownall declined to address the potential root cause of their conlict.
“I believe that like any family dynamics, there’s always going to be the potential for conflict,” he said. “I think a lot of it is they’re in such close proximity to each other that if one does something that agitates or irritates the other, then it just goes from there.”
Pownall added that in his 21 years in law enforcement, this is the first-ever honey-related situation he has seen.
“I would hope that folks would be able to figure out a way to interact with one another in a peaceful manner,” he said. “That would be the best case scenario for everyone involved.”
