A 72-year-old Villager was arrested after allegedly yanking an uninvited child from a water slide during a party.
Betty Gwendolyn Cantelmo of the Village of Del Mar was arrested Tuesday afternoon on a third-degree felony charge of cruelty to a child.
Sumter County sheriff’s deputies had been called to County Road 230A in Wildwood where the party was taking place.
A witness told deputies that Cantelmo had grabbed a child by the arm when she reached the bottom of a water slide. Cantelmo then asked the child who she was and where she lived, the witness said. Cantelmo then pulled the child out of the slide by her arm, the report indicated.
However, a second witness said Cantelmo approached the child and asked her to exit the water, but said Cantelmo did not touch the child.
Cantelmo told a deputy that the child had “not been invited to her party,” the report indicated. She denied putting her hands on the child.
She was booked at the Sumter County Detention Center and released after posting $2,000 bond.
