Posted on 05/20/2017 10:51:20 AM PDT by Gamecock
A 26-year-old West Ashley woman was ticketed Friday after Charleston police said she caused an accident by scaring two carriage horses with a Tyrannosaurus rex costume.
Nicole Wells of Ashley River Road was cited on a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct and wearing a mask or disguise on a public street, a city code violation, police said.
Wells was released after turning herself in Friday morning, spokesman Charles Francis said. She was not jailed.
The incident was reported shortly after 5 p.m. on Thursday near Tommy Condon's restaurant on Church Street. Two Palmetto Carriage Works horses, named Yogi and Boo Boo, were pulling 16 passengers when a woman dressed in an orange Tyrannosaurus rex costume got in front of the carriage and started making growling noises, according to witnesses and the police report. She refused to move after being warned several times that she was upsetting the horses, driver Van Sturgeon said.
The horses jumped and jackknifed the carriage. Yogi fell back on his haunches. The driver was thrown to the pavement, and a wheel ran over his right leg. He was taken to a hospital for treatment. He was walking with crutches Friday with a bruised leg and broken foot.
Initially it was reported that Yogi was scratched but officials later confirmed he was not hurt. No passenger injuries were reported.
The dinosaur shuffled off to a parking garage on Cumberland Street and got into a car, according to surveillance video. Witnesses told police it was a woman.
At a press conference Friday afternoon, Palmetto Carriage Works President Tom Doyle said staffers have seen people lay down in the street to stop the horses, as well as yell insults at drivers and passengers.
"We've seen the attacks getting more and more brazen, and we fear the result will be the death of one of our family, a guest or an animal," he said. "These attacks follow the increasingly irresponsible rhetoric coming from organizations that have one goal, and that goal is to end carriage tours in Charleston."
The Charleston Animal Society has been calling for reforms to the carriage industry and not a ban, but has reposted videos of fallen horses from groups whose agenda is to ban carriages. The Animal Society decried the dinosaur incident as animal cruelty and offered a $2,500 reward Thursday for an arrest and conviction.
This is really sad. Those carriage drivers are not some lowly illegals whipping old nags up and down the streets. I’ve taken at least three of those tours and the drivers are historians who beautifully connect the locations to American history. Revolutionary days, Civil War days. They place everything in historical context and give visiting Charleston so much meaning. I would definitely INSIST anyone visiting take at least one. The routes and the stories are different. And the horses are well cared for and beautiful.
Steve McQueen clone, recommended!
Just buy a cucumber and put it beside your sleeping cat.Just remove anything breakable before you do that.
I’ve also just written about those magnificent carriage rides. Everyone should take one. Or more.
My first was scary and maybe a little too “sexy” for one older gent. My two year old wouldn’t stay on the seat or lap. She insisted on happily sitting at my feet on the open sided carriage. She was quiet and didn’t disturb anyone so I didn’t want to pull her up and have her cry and ruin the drive for the other tourists on our carriage.
But she was only a few scary feet up from the pavement and carriage wheels. In order to keep her from falling through, I had to basically bend over and hold a rail against a strangers leg in the seat ahead of me. He didn’t move his leg so my hand, trying to close the gap to keep my baby safe, was against his thigh the whole ride. Who knows, maybe he was enjoying it.
“Do the cucumber trick on your cat. Watch it hit the roof.”
Cucumber...with or without a condom?
My horse fears garbage cans and cars parked on the road. When it comes to strange animals, however, his “fight or flight” response tends to be fight. I’m betting he would have kicked that ‘T Rex’ into the next county.
“Yankees, yes?”
“West Ashley woman”...a (very stupid) local. You’d think they would know better.
Carriage rides in Charleston are almost sacred...you don’t mess with’em...even though they REALLY block the narrow streets.
Looks like a walking turd with teeth.
I did the harbor tour and carriage ride package. Worth every penny. Your observations of the carriage rides was spot-on with my experience. Cute little blonde driver, that knew her stuff, and didn’t shy away from making a wise crack about the Clintons. She won my heart with that joke.
Being a landlubber, I’d never seen a port or the big ships(and the margaritas on the boat weren’t all that bad either).
My niece and her husband teach at the University of Charleston, so I swung through there after taking my daughter to college in Gainesville. My first real vacation in 20 years.
Had planned to stay a couple more days there, but my father had a stroke while I was gone and I had to head home pronto.
Check this out
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Cats+vs+Cucumbers&&view=detail&mid=F4E5F4FF42EB788A2AE2F4E5F4FF42EB788A2AE2&FORM=VRDGAR
I have a pair of ghillie shoes--sort of like moccasins--with long, heavy laces made from leather. My little calico girl kitty loved to bat the laces around, purring as she did so, even though she was in her late teens, long past the age when most cats cease playing.
She passed away on Election Day last year, shortly after her 18th birthday.
We’ve never done carriage rides in Charleston.
It seems like we did in Savannah though.
However, for the first time we went to Tallships parade and actually took a couple of rides.
The first was on the Spirit Of SC and next was the When And If (I may have that backwards). Both were pleasant. We were able to tour all the available ones except two.
It was a good Go Pro Hero 5 test. Great little camera.
AHAHAHAHAHA!
Need pictures to prove guilt.
So what if some snowflake horses are afraid of the Secretary of State?....oh wait...nevermind.
I hope Nicole Wells gets the book thrown at her hard enough to knock some sense into her thick skull before she kills a horse or a human with her stupidity.
Cucumber: Cats worst enemy, woman’s best friend?
Yes, I am going to Hell.
Just did it and all she did was sniff it and walk away. Totally uninterested.
Must be that all cats don’t freak out.Lots of videos of cats that do.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.