Proving there are no age limits on Walt Disney World guests behaving badly, an elderly man and his wife in their late 70s are facing criminal charges after a hair-pulling, kicking fight to claim the best spot for the Magic Kingdom’s Disney Festival of Fantasy Parade, according to newly released records this week.
Bruce Klaff, 79, and his wife, Nancy Klaff, 77, who live in Auburn, Ala., are both charged with misdemeanor battery for their role in a brawl that happened October 16, 2023. (It has taken the Orange County Sheriff’s Office Office months to release the public documents which is why we’re now writing about the incident in January.)
A 60-year-old woman from St. Petersburg was the victim, the sheriff’s office said.
The woman said she sat down on a curb on Main Street, U.S.A., before the parade started when the Klaffs informed her they were saving the area for the rest of their family. They demanded she find a new spot, but the woman ignored “the two elderly persons” and stayed, the Orange County Sheriff’s arrest report said.
What happened next, the woman said, was “Bruce began to kick her buttock region repeatedly and push her towards the end of the curb attempting to remove her from the area. Nancy also positioned herself behind (the woman) and began to kick her and pull (the woman’s) hair,” the Orange County Sheriff’s arrest report said.
The woman asked the couple to stop.
A Disney Cast Member saw what was happening and intervened, telling a quick fib the victim had been chosen to watch the parade in a special area. It was the Cast Member’s way of de-escalating the situation and separating her from the Klaffs. The Cast Member had witnessed the physical fight and corroborated with the woman’s statement that Bruce was yelling and kicking the victim when the Cast Member was interviewed by law enforcement.
The victim, who recorded the scene, wanted to prosecute the Klaffs.
She declined to comment for this story other than saying, “Apparently age has no boundaries for cruelty.”
To law enforcement, Bruce admitted to nudging the woman when she wouldn’t move. He refused to give any more detailed sworn written statement to authorities.
Nancy argued she and her husband never touched the woman. Instead, Nancy accused the woman of kicking her instead, but Nancy also declined to give a formal statement to the sheriff’s office. Police did not believe her story.
Both Nancy and Bruce were trespassed from Walt Disney World, and Bruce was taken to Orange County Jail in a marked patrol car. The report does not say if Nancy was taken to jail. The state attorney’s office decided to prosecute her for battery in November, records show.
The couple is scheduled for their next court hearing on January 18, and both have pled not guilty.
WDWNT reached out to the two attorneys representing the husband and wife separately, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
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I hope they are banned!!
I had a similar experience (though it did not come to blows) where me, my husband and two children had staked out our spot about an hour before the parade (Spectromagic in this case). My husband took my daughter to the bathroom about 15 minutes prior and an older woman just sauntered in and sat in my husband’s spot. I told her he was sitting there and she said ‘she didn’t see him’ and refused to move. I agree that physically assaulting the woman in this story was unacceptable, but i can understand why they might want to from my own experience. There’s two sides to every story.