The Auburn oak tree killer is in custody, but damage is already done(poisoned by a BAMA fan)

Rivals-Yahoo! ^ | February 17, 2011 | Matt Hinton

[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.

[antiRepublicrat]

Community service is the answer.

Give him a hand saw and axe to chop up the dead trees. Then he can carry the wood, piece by piece, to the houses of local poor people to use as firewood next winter.

Then give him one of those tiny flower garden shovels and make him remove every cubic inch of contaminated soil and root. Give him a wheelbarrow to use to haul it to the dump.

Then he can pay for replacement trees to be shipped in.

[camerongood210]

I am an Auburn student right now. Obviously, we aren't happy.

[Arrowhead1952]

No, I didn't hear about that last year. I inherited part of the land about 70 miles east of Austin where I grew up. The part next to SH 21 used to have ruts from the Old San Antonio Trail in the clay.

There is an old Pin Oak between the old trail path and the highway that was called The Hanging Tree. Its trunk is about 6 1/2 feet in diameter. I hope on one ever poisons that tree.

[youngidiot]

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.

I don't know how the sports shows stay on the air. I had to travel recently and my satellite radio was screwed up, so I drove through several hours of sports talk. The callers are asinine. I wanted to park my car in a garage and leave it running, while I drifted off to the sweet release of death, after listening to a couple of hours of that nonsense.

[Uncle Ivan]

Maybe they can put up a big statue of Cam Newton in place of the trees, and roll that.

For at least a few years, anyway, until Auburn gets hit with crippling probation and has to vacate the season Newton played in.

[FightThePower!]

“130 years old..... Apparently we have their birth certificates.”

You ever hear of counting rings in trees?

[elcid1970]

I’m sixty two. When I was FOUR I wouldn’t have done such a thing.

The EPA ought to be able to fine the s**t out of this jerk for soil damage alone. My workplace can be liable for hundreds of thousands in EPA fines if the smallest amount of petroleum products is detected in stormwater or downstream.

He should be publically humiliated on an annual basis. Ideas?

[gov_bean_ counter]

And where do you find 400 year old trees?

The Democrat side of Congress?

[Mikey_1962]

Rolling = TP rolls

[miele man]

I thought the very same thought. Seeing his background also makes me wonder how many folks this guy rail-roaded when he was a Texas state Trooper?

[Liberty Valance]

What an ass! Such an ass in fact that he needs a football kicked up his butt.

[buccaneer81]

If you’re so emotionally invested in a team, that you’re willing to commit a crime to show your allegiance....

The jail is full of them here in Columbus on fall weekends. And I'm not talking about drunk kids puking on the sidewalk, I'm talking about "adults" who commit arson, assault and vandalism in their belief that it makes them Buckeye fans.

[Paladin2]

Trees can be cored and rings counted. That’s how we know CO2 causes Gorebal Warning.

[buccaneer81]

[MamaB]

I read he named his 2 daughters Bear Bryant and Crimson Tide. Crimson has a FB page and her photo is one of the trees burning. I think she was born in 1970.

[Scoutmaster]

If you’re so emotionally invested in a team, that you’re willing to commit a crime to show your allegiance....You’ve got some serious problems.

Remember, it’s just entertainment.

Not to an average University of Alabama fan who never attended the University of Alabama.

I've lived all over the country. I've seen all kinds of fans of different universities with outstanding football traditions. As I sit here, a few hundred miles away, the University of Alabama is the only situation I've seen where fans honestly believe they are better in the eyes of God because they support a particular college football team. And the fans I speak about generally never attended a class in Tuscaloosa.

I believe if you could take an anonymous poll, the majority of Alabama fans who didn't attend the University of Alabama (and quite possibly a majority of those who did) are cheering Mr. Updyke.

[GAB-1955]

That might be so... but poisoning someone else’s property over a football game?

I hope a judge adds as a condition of the sentence that this idiot is barred from attending Alabama games; owning Alabama paraphernalia; stepping foot on the campuses of Auburn and Alabama Universities; as well as watching them on television or listening to them on the radio.

We would do, in essence, a ‘Philip Nolan’ on him, except he'd be the Man Without a Football Team.

[waredbird]

This would warrant the death penalty in Carmel CA.

[MediaMole]

This is like the A-hole who burned the Texas governor’s mansion. It’s just senseless vandalism.

[Lutheran Loft II]

In response to this felony by a man who just happens to be an Alabama fan, you bring up Auburn and probation? How ‘bout a little class.