Man’s Self-Defense Spray Routs Restaurant Diners

Eight patrons at a seafood restaurant were overcome by fumes late Monday when an elderly man’s self-defense spray canister was accidentally triggered, authorities said.

The owner of the canister of Pepper Plus, which is not approved for sale in California, and his wife kept on eating at the Los Alamitos Fish Company while patrons around them were made ill by the cayenne pepper fumes, Battalion Chief Kevin Brame of the Orange County Fire Department said.

“He and his wife just sat there like nothing bothered them,” Brame said. “But everybody sitting around them started leaving.”

The incident occurred about 7:20 p.m. at the restaurant in the 11000 block of Los Alamitos Boulevard. Restaurant officials said the fumes apparently spewed into the eating area when the unidentified customer bent over, accidentally triggering the canister he wore on a key chain.

When firefighters arrived, the restaurant had been evacuated. Brame said paramedics treated eight patrons for nausea and throat irritation. All were released at the scene, and no one was hospitalized, he said.

Brame said sheriff’s deputies confiscated the slim spray canister, which the man said his son bought for him in Nevada. But it was not immediately clear whether it was illegal to possess such a device in California. The man was not cited.