Posted on 02/17/2011 11:14:35 AM PST by greatdefender
Today's lessons for would-be environmental vandals: If you're going to take it upon yourself to destroy a venerable icon beloved by hundreds of thousands of people, a) Pick a target that's not monitored by camera 24 hours a day, and b) Don't call in to the most popular radio show in the state to brag about your crime. Otherwise, you might end up like 62-year-old Alabama fan Harvey Almorn Updyke, better known now as "Al from Dadeville," who was arrested early this morning for allegedly applying a lethal dose of herbicide to a pair of 130-year-old oaks at Toomer's Corner, the traditional campus meeting point for Auburn fans to celebrate victory by rolling the trees. Updyke is charged with criminal mischief and was being held this morning on $50,000 bond.
His arrest came less than 18 hours after Auburn confirmed the poisoning in a release on Wednesday afternoon. Initially, the university was alerted by a caller to the Paul Finebaum Show on Jan. 27, "Al from Dadeville," who proudly described poisoning the trees with Spike 80DF – the same herbicide later found in soil samples – a few days after Auburn's comeback win over Alabama last November. According to the university, the lowest level of Spike detected in samples was 0.78 parts per million, "a very lethal dose." The highest level detected was 51 parts per million, some 65 times that lethal dose, which is possibly enough to warrant significant environmental penalties. (The university also said there's "no reason to suspect any human danger from the herbicide," and expert said at a press conference this morning that there's very little chance any groundwater would be affected.) Auburn police chief Tommy Dawson said this morning Updyke potentially faces further charges, but declined to elaborate.
(Excerpt) Read more at rivals.yahoo.com ...
Kinda makes me wish he was visited by the ghost of “Bear” Bryant...just to let him know what a totally asinine act that was.
I don’t suppose they will feature him in that Roll Tide commercial
If he is convicted of a crime, maybe they can get his pension revoked!
The school is 155 years old. The town is 175 years old. The corner in question (Magnolia and College), is roughly as old as the town itself.
There well may be a record of the planting of these trees.
This guy provides the continual proof that you just can’t fix ‘stupid’.
didnt say if the applicator was “high capacity” or just regular. maybe we should regulate high capacity herbicide applicators.
Can we just brand the word “DUMBASS” onto his forehead as a warning to others?
Retired cop. What a pig.
Maybe they can make a sculpture or something memorable out of the wood?
Spike will travel through the soil pretty far and keep killing. It will be lethal for a few years. They would have to remove all the soil in the area down to a certain depth.
He not only killed the trees, he killed the land.
I took donhunt’s comment to be a joke on the inability of obammy to produce his birth certificate even though the age of a tree that is at least 130 years old can be verified. Perhaps I am wrong.
Around here we call that TP’ing.
I can believe it. In El Paso a talk radio station that carried Beck and Dennis Miller changed formats to sports talk (making 3 of the 6 english AM stations sports oriented). I listened for a little bit and was disgusted by how much importance grown men were putting on entertainment. I can understand the hosts as there is money to be made from sports fans (just like there is money to be made from payday loans) but the people calling in who really, really, cared were just sad.
62? You’d think he’d have some wisdom by now.
I remember when another idiot in Austin poisoned the “Treaty Oak”. They save it, but had to take off a lot of the limbs. The cut off wood was turned into artifacts and sold by the city.
Check out the movie Big Fan about an obsessed NY Giants fan. Lead character regularly calls sports radio and eventually commits a crime.
The lead character was also a loser in his mid-30s who still lived with his mom. Unlike this tree-killer, who is apparently a 62 year old loser living in Dadeville.
Makes sense, thanks for the info.
I don't understand all these tree killings. I'm not a tree-hugger, but sometimes we do need the Lorax, or even better, a group of angry Ents.
That was done with a number of oaks killed along the Mississippi coast by the salt from Katrina's storm surge. Chainsaw wood sculptures.
It's worth suggesting to the university.
This guy only did what liberals have been doing to the tree of liberty since the 60’s.
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