ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — A man said he purposely caused a disturbance at a ticket counter at Orlando International Airport when he was told he wouldn’t make his flight.
“I knew exactly what I was doing. I’m not crazy,” said Jeffrey Epstein as he bonded out of jail Thursday afternoon.
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The Lakeland man’s trip to Philadelphia ended in handcuffs after he said he was trying to make a point.
Epstein said he was at the American Airlines ticket counter around 6 a.m. Thursday when an employee told him he wouldn’t make the flight.
“If she said to me, ‘You’re too late. You’re not going to make it,’ I would have been fine. But she gave me an attitude,” Epstein said. “I thought if they were faster, I could make it.”
Epstein admits that’s when he became “loud and obnoxious.”
The ticket agent called police. According to a police report, Epstein refused to cooperate.
“I didn’t put my hands behind my back because I didn’t trust that policeman,” Epstein said.
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Police used pepper spray as they tried to detain him. Epstein said the handcuffs on his wrists were too tight.
Epstein faces charges, including battery on a law enforcement officer, resisting arrest, trespassing on property after warning and disorderly conduct.
An OIA spokesperson said the incident did not disrupt airport operations.
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