TAMPA, Fla. – A Florida man didn't get his new year off to a good start after he was arrested for attacking his girlfriend with a banana.

After responding to their home on Wednesday morning, police say the girlfriend of Phillip Joseph Smolinsky accused him of throwing a banana at her head. A Pasco County deputy noticed a red patch on the victim's face where she said she was hit by the flying fruit.

The arrest affidavit shows that the same deputy also found a banana in a nearby garbage can and that parts of the peel were found on the ground near where the girlfriend was sitting.

In addition to the domestic battery charges, Smolinsky, 36, was also charged with attempting to resist arrest without violence.

Police say that pepper spray had to be used to apprehend Smolinsky.