Naked Man Attacks Surveyor with Machete in DeLand

DELAND, Fla. – A man was arrested in DeLand on Monday after apparently attacking a surveyor with a machete. The attack happened at the Volusia County Fairgrounds a bit before 10:00 am, where the surveyor was conducting an inspection. While on the job, a naked man who’d been picking palmetto berries in the brush emerged wielding a machete, demanding that the surveyor hand over his wallet, cell phone, and clothes. As the surveyor was preparing the hand the man his belongings, the man threw the machete, with the handle striking the surveyor in the chest. He then ran away into the woods and got into his vehicle, a white Dodge Challenger. The Volusia Sheriff’s Office was contacted, and a deputy recalled a similar incident of a man named Brandon Wright running naked through the same vicinity as this current instance. Wright’s Challenger was spotted by a license plate reader and he was later reported to the VSO at a gas station in DeLand, still naked. VSO Air One kept track of his location while officers with the DeLand Police Department traveled to the gas station and arrested Wright. He’s held without bond at the Volusia County Branch Jail, charged with attempted robbery with a deadly weapon, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. He’s also been charged at other times with kidnapping, cocaine possession, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, battery on an officer, and nonviolently resisting an officer.