'Chainsaw man' must leave homeless alone

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., April 9 (UPI) -- A Florida judge has ordered a Fort Lauderdale businessman to turn in his chain saw and stop terrorizing five homeless men who congregate in his neighborhood.

Stephen Sticht, 49, must appear in court April 17 to answer charges he has been conducting a "heinous" intimidation campaign against the five, the Miami Herald reported Wednesday.

The men charge Sticht has chased them through fields and over railroad tracks armed with a chainsaw and even shot at them with a pistol.

Sticht denies the charges and says the men are just trying to get back at him for calling the police when he finds them loitering near his home and construction-consultant business.

"All these allegations are fabrications," Sticht says. "It's a witch hunt. These guys are crackheads."

The homeless men held a press conference Tuesday to complain someone placed fliers in the neighborhood featuring their pictures and calling them crackheads, crooks and prostitutes, WPLG-TV, Miami, reported.

Sticht has denied making the fliers.