OKEECHOBEE — Two young teens were allegedly accosted by a 59-year-old man while fishing in a pond recently.

According to the arrest report, John Arthur Sprock was arrested by Okeechobee County Sheriff’s Deputy Gavin Hardin at approximately 5:30 p.m. on Oct. 18.

Deputy Hardin was dispatched to Publix to speak with the mother of one of the two boys. The woman told the deputy her son and his friend were fishing in a pond in the Silver Palms community.

She said the two boys, age 13 and 14, had previously asked for and received permission to fish in the ponds on the property by a manager of the park. The boys said as they were fishing , a man, identified as Sprock, told them they needed to either leave or he would take their bikes and drown them in the pond. He said Sprock tried to take his e-bike, and when he held on and told the man to let go, he was shoved to the ground.

He said he was choked and pinned to the ground by his hair. He said he got the man off of him by kicking up toward the man.

The two boys went to Publix to get away from the man and called their parents. The second boy gave a similar statement when questioned. He even said he was able to take some pictures of Sprock standing over his friend.

When the deputy interviewed Sprock, he allegedly claimed that when he tried to tell the boys to leave, one of them got in his face and then kicked him in the leg. The report goes on to say that Sprock said he held the boy down by his hair to calm him down. He added that the second boy told him he was lucky they did not have a “gat” with them.

Sprock was arrested and charged with child abuse without great bodily harm.

Bond was set at $3,000.