Florida dad uses bat to attack prowler accused of spying on 14-year-old daughter: deputies

PALM COAST, Fla. (WFLA) — A Florida dad is being praised as “fearless,” after deputies said he attacked and chased after a man accused of peeping on his 14-year-old daughter.

On Sept. 12, the father and his wife were sitting on their backyard porch when the woman noticed a man creeping through trees near their home. The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office said the couple yelled at the man, who ran away.

The next night, the father sat on the porch again, out of concern, when he noticed the same man walking towards his 14-year-old daughter’s bedroom window and peeking through.

Deputies said that’s when the dad swung a bat, chased the prowler away from his home, and called the sheriff’s office.

“Who comes back two nights in a row being busted you know? But he did. He came straight up. He came sneaking around the house, came right up to my daughter’s window,” the girl’s mother said. “So he came up cupped his hands around his eyes and was looking in, so my husband came up and was like ‘Surprise! expletive, and then whacked him with the bat and then he ran.'”

A neighbor’s ring camera caught the suspect, identified as 29-year-old Damon Smith, of Palm Coast, running from the family’s home as the dad chased him.

Smith admitted to being on the victim’s property and that he “gets a thrill” walking around people’s homes, according to authorities.

The sheriff’s office praised the dad, referring to him as a “fearless father.”

Smith was arrested for loitering or prowling, aggravated stalking of a person under 16, and voyeurism. He was taken to the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility on an $86,000 bond.

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