Deputy’s arm-wrestling match has tough break
A friendly arm-wrestling match took a painful twist as the Lake County Sheriff’s Office’s No. 2 man conquered his opponent: The military veteran’s arm snapped in two.
“I felt sick to my stomach,” Chief Deputy Jerry Craig said Monday about the April 4 incident outside a Eustis thrift store. “I would never want to intentionally hurt somebody in any way, shape or form.”
Norman Peterson, 66, of Eustis was rushed to Florida Waterman Hospital in Tavares, where he had surgery to repair his arm, according to a sheriff ’s report.
A friend said Monday that the retired Air Force veteran had a pair of rods inserted into his arm. Peterson did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
It all started just after 3 p.m. when Craig, 58, drove by the Veteran’s Community Thrift Store at 1614 E. Bay St. and noticed an armwrestling table sitting outside the
shop with a price tag on it.
“I thought: ‘I wouldn’t mind purchasing it,’ ” Craig said. “It supports the veterans … I thought it would be fun to have, and you rarely ever see these tables. I could see giving it to my son.”
Craig — a muscular man with a Southern drawl and a friendly demeanor — is known to stop by local businesses to chat with the owners and build a rapport with residents.
It wasn’t long before Craig and Lloyd Thorne, the thrift store’s executive director, started chatting about the table’s price.
“He had the price at $50,” Craig said. “But he wanted to give it to me, and I said: ‘I don’t want you to give it to me.’ ”
So the two men decided to try the table out by arm wrestling each other, mano a mano. They propped their elbows on the black table with red pads.
“I thought he was setting me up, because I whipped him,” Craig said. “They were all laughing when I whipped him again the second time. … I still thought they were setting me up after I arm wrestled him a third time and again whupped him.”
The men laughed some more and shot photos of each other arm wrestling. Thorne then brought out Peterson, his friend and store volunteer, and asked if Craig dared to arm wrestle him.
“Now I’m about to go for my fourth time,” said Craig, who was retired after more than 30 years with the Marion County Sheriff’s Office when he joined the Lake agency in January 2017 under newly elected Sheriff Peyton Grinnell. “I’ve been around a long time. I’ve seen skinny guys whup big guys.”
So they locked hands and for a moment, it seemed as if Peterson was about to beat the No. 2 man in the Sheriff’s Office. He had Craig’s arm pushed to about an inch from the table.
“I then took a deep breath and put all my strength into it,” Craig said. “Then there was this loud snap.”
Craig called 911, and as paramedics arrived, he dialed Grinnell to tell him what happened. A few hours later he called the hospital to check on Peterson. He also called him again a few days later to see how he was doing.
“I didn’t go down there looking to arm wrestle anybody,” Craig said. “But they were all just laughing and having a good time. … I didn’t see how it can be any different than a deputy playing basketball with a bunch of guys. … I just felt terrible.”
Thorne, 66, was tight-lipped about the match.
“I don’t feel comfortable saying anything,” Thorne said. “I just can’t.”
Grinnell called it a “freak accident,” and Craig will not face a reprimand.
“There was nothing malicious,” the sheriff said. “He [Craig] called 911, and he went back to check up with him at the hospital. He did everything he was supposed to do.” And the arm wrestling table? Craig ended up taking it home, where it now sits in his garage “with a bunch of stuff on top of it,” he said.