Christopher Pogozelski had an unsettling day at work at the haunted house at Ohio's Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds after a real scare occurred. An interaction with an 11-year-old boy left the boy with a minor stab wound, and Pogozelski will be paying the price.
The house is called the 7 Floors of Hell, and he was an actor who had one job — to playfully scare the children. But after being challenged over whether or not his knife was a prop, a real incident occurred.
The boy's mom, Karen Bednarski, spoke with The Washington Post about the incident.
"He was scraping the knife on the ground and playing around with them," Bednarski said. "And my son said to him, 'I'm not afraid, your knife is fake.' So the man was like, 'Oh, it's real. Trust me, it's real.' And that's when he started poking it at his feet multiple times until he stabbed him."
The boy was stabbed on his left big toe. According to witnesses, the knife in question was a Bowie knife. The boy was reportedly wearing shoes that resembled Crocs, offering some openings for the knife to make contact.
While the injury was minor and the boy will be OK, it's still something that shouldn't have happened in the first place. As Bednarski told News 5 Cleveland, it wasn't just about the fact that a real knife was brought into an exhibit that was meant to be safe but also the way that the staff treated the incident. And that's what likely what drew the media to the story.
"I'm highly upset," she said. "They just kept saying accidents happen, accidents happen." But had that knife been a prop, it wouldn't have. She also said that when it first happened, staff members refused to provide any first aid.
"They told me that they were not certified to administer first aid," she said. The outlet also says that a prop knife was offered to the actor. But he chose not to use it and used a real knife instead. As he told the police, "using the knife was not a good idea and that the injury was an accident."
Fox 2 Detroit reports that the actor "had no intention of hurting anyone with it." Rodney Geffert, the president of Night Scream Entertainment, which owns the haunted house attraction, has officially gone on record to declare that the incident was an accident.
"I guess he got a little too close," he told News 5 Cleveland. "It was a complete accident and poked the boy's toe." However, Geffert revealed more to the story that doesn't necessarily paint the actor in the best light.
He stated that Christopher Pogozelski actually went to his car to get the knife that he used for the haunted house performance. That gave him plenty of time to rethink his strategy. According to Geffert, nobody was aware that he had done that, and they all thought he was using a prop that was provided.
"The police took the knife and I made it real clear with him, you don't go to your vehicle and get something out like that," Geffert said. "We just don't do that." He also said that Pogozelski was a popular actor, and that in general, the haunted house has a rule that there's no touching — which, technically, Pogozelski broke.
According to police, Pogozelski's mother asked for the knife back. But unfortunately, based on the situation, that knife is listed as evidence in a police case. Mom Karen Bednarski chose to press charges in the incident, under negligent assault.
"The biggest thing for me is, you know, I don't understand the mental state of this man," Bednarski said. "There's got to be something wrong with him, and he should not be working at an establishment like that. That's what makes me upset." As of right now, Pogozelski still works at 7 Floors of Hell, but Geffert is thinking the entire situation through.
