Woman pokes snoring passenger with pen on plane

CHICAGO (WPVI) -- As Lenny Mordarski woke up from a pre-take-off snooze on a Southwest flight from Chicago to Manchester, New Hampshire Thursday, he found the woman sitting next to him stabbing him with a pen.

"Imagine being asleep, and then being stung by bees, and then waking up and going 'Owww!'" said Mordarski.

"She just went nuts and started stabbing him with the pen. He screamed really loud, almost like a little girl," said Mordarski's friend, fellow passenger Michael Sutton.

Before the screaming, apparently, Mordarski was snoring. And that, the airline says, is what set the woman off

"He kept saying, I was sleeping and she stabbed me with a pen!" said passenger Charlie Ray.

The plane returned to the gate, the perturbed passenger escorted off, and flight attendants couldn't help but chuckle as they held on to the womans' writing utensil-turned-weapon.

"They were great. They made us gin and tonics, they were super nice. They made jokes at the end of it, said 'Everyone keep their pens to yourself!' It was jovial, everybody on the plane was happy," said Sutton.