‘Firecracker!’: Florida man with short fuse keeps neighbors awake

CAPE CORAL, Fla. — A Florida man had a short fuse about the upcoming Fourth of July holiday.

>> Read more trending news

An unidentified man, protesting the loud noises caused by fireworks, was caught screaming on a Cape Coral security camera last week, WBBH reported.

At about 3 a.m. EDT on June 25, the man could be heard screaming, “Firecracker, firecracker, boom,” the television station reported.

“The dogs were barking and we go outside and this guy was screaming, I mean so loud,” Sara Warnecke, whose security camera captured the man’s noisy tirade, told WBBH. “He seemed to be upset that people were celebrating early.”

Warnecke decided to answer back while the man yelled, admonishing the man and telling him to “shut up.”

“Bottle rocket! Yeah, it’s (expletive) annoying, isn’t it?” the man yelled. “Quit (expletive) doing it in the middle of the night.”

“He’s definitely out there,” neighbor Phil Franzese told WBBH.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill in April 2020 that designated three days -- Jan. 1, July 4 and Dec. 31 -- as days when fireworks are legal in the state.

There is no law against imitating firecrackers, but the man may put himself in some legal hot water.

“Pretending to be a firework is also going to run afoul of our noise ordinance,” Master Corporal Phil Mullen, of the Cape Coral Police Department, told WBBH.

Warnecke believes the man was getting in his shots early.

“He thought, last year probably, that I’m going to wake them up like they woke me up with the fireworks,” Warnecke told the television station.

The man’s identity remains a mystery, but his message was clear.

“Sleep, sleep,” he yelled, according to Warnecke’s security camera. “Work in the a.m.”

©2021 Cox Media Group