MOULTRIE, Ga. — Mowing the lawn on a muggy June day in south Georgia is miserable enough, but it’s even tougher when the one doing the work is attacked by a man with a stick who is also wielding a machete.

That was the situation that confronted a Colquitt County man Tuesday morning.

Florencio Ruiz showed up at the Colquitt County Sheriff’s Office at about 10:22 a.m. after a visit to the hospital.

Through a friend who interpreted for him, Ruiz reported that while cutting grass in the 800 block of Doc Darbyshire an acquaintance approached and began hitting him with a stick.

When the assailant brandished the machete another man intervened and prevented him from attacking Ruiz. That man took Ruiz to the hospital.

Ruiz had bruises on the left side of his body and ribs, police said. The officer was unable to read the hospital papers Ruiz had because they were written in Spanish.

Ruiz told police that he did not know why the man, whose name he provided to the officer, attacked him. He was able to give the man’s address, but when police went there they did not make contact with him.