Rattlesnake Tosser Charged

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho -- A man accused of tossing a rattlesnake into a bar has been charged with felony assault with a deadly weapon.

Rodger Hunter, 28, was arrested Monday night and charged Tuesday. Witness Jeff Hewit said minutes after a man walked into Chic's Lounge, he pulled a 3-foot-6-inch snake from his pocket, threw it into the crowd and darted from the tavern.

Another witness said she thought the snake was rubber.

"Who would bring a snake to a bar?" asked Tricia Phillipes, 34. "That's crazy."

After the rattler slithered under a chair occupied by a disabled man, Hewit, who said he once owned a python and caught rattlesnakes as a child, grabbed one of the man's crutches.

Using the top of the crutch, he swept the snake out from under the chair, flipped the crutch around and, using the pointed end, pinned down the snake's head. Hewit and another man wrapped a long-sleeved T-shirt around the snake's head, picked it up and dropped it in a bucket.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/g/archive/2004/06/17/snakethrow.DTL

That is my hometown, and I'm not too surprised that something like that happened there. I once went to a party where the host invited us to see his pets, and his "pets" were a cooler full of live rattlesnakes. Needless to say, I left that party early!