ShareThisWith her pacemaker and frail body, few would describe Christa Taft-Mueller as an intimidating woman.
But the 69-year-old widow is no pushover when she's packing her pink-handled Walther P22 semi-automatic handgun. Just ask a local handyman.
Earlier this week, Taft-Mueller pulled the gun on a handyman who was supposed to be repairing the pocket door leading to her bedroom, but who she says she found arched over her jewelry box.
"My hands were shaking so much," Taft-Mueller said in her German accent. "And the guy said, 'Is that pistol loaded?' I said, 'Of course it is. It's ready for you. It's ready for you, honey.'"
The handyman, whose name is not being released by the Collier County Sheriff's Office, said he was only looking for an outlet to plug in a tool. He was not charged with a crime because the sheriff's office said nothing was missing from Taft-Mueller's jewelry box.
"There was no evidence that a crime occurred," Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Michelle Batten said.
Rob Gardner, vice president of Handyman Connection, said he trusts the handyman wasn't attempting to steal anything. Gardner's company has employed the handyman since 2006 without incident, he said.
"I think it was just an honest mistake on her part," Gardner said.
Taft-Mueller couldn't disagree more.
Since her husband died of cancer last September, Taft-Mueller has relied on hired handymen to fix things around her house. After the sliding door to her bedroom fell off the track recently, she called Handyman Connection, a company she's hired a half-dozen times before.
When the handyman arrived, Taft-Mueller said he went right to work on the door. She grew suspicious, however, when he closed the door and was alone in her bedroom for about five minutes.
Taft-Mueller said that when she opened the door to check on the handyman, he was bent over the jewelry box on top of her nightstand. The handyman said it was all a mistake, and that he was only looking for an outlet to plug in a light inside her dark bedroom, according to a sheriff's office report.
If that was the case, Taft-Mueller questioned why he didn't use the outlet on the sidewall next to the nightstand, or one of the three outlets within a few feet of the door he was repairing.
"He said, 'I'm looking for an outlet.' I said, 'In my jewelry box?'" Taft-Mueller said. "I started trembling and I got real scared that he was a thief."
When the handyman went out to his truck, Taft-Mueller called the Sheriff's Office and found her loaded pink pistol in her bedroom.
When the handyman came back inside, she held him at gunpoint.
"I said, 'You (expletive), you're not going anyplace,'" Taft-Mueller said.
The Sheriff's Office dispatcher told Taft-Mueller to put the gun down, and told both her and the handyman to go outside to wait for responding deputies. She was hospitalized briefly because her chest was tight and she was having a hard time breathing after the encounter.
"We're not anticipating charges in this incident," Batten said.
(Contact Ryan Mills of the Naples Daily News in Florida at XX(at)xxx.com.)
