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Tue 18 Jul, 2006 08:02 pm
Man Charged for Putting Boa in Mailbox
FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich. - A man's idea of a joke, putting a pet 6-foot boa constrictor in his mailbox to startle a mail carrier, could bring him time behind bars.
"It was an incredibly stupid practical joke that wasn't funny," said James R. Mell, 31, an auto mechanic from the Detroit suburb of Farmington Hills.
Mell put the snake in his mailbox July 7, The Detroit News said.
"I thought it was funny. Looking back on it, it isn't, and it wasn't," he said.
On Monday, federal prosecutors charged Mell with obstructing the delivery of the U.S. mail. The charge carries a penalty of up to six months in prison.
Postal carrier Nakeema Anderson was making her rounds when she opened Mell's mailbox and faced the snake, court records say.
"Anderson reported observing a white male in the driveway laughing," said a report from U.S. postal inspector Andrew Gottfried.
Mell wrote a letter apologizing to Anderson and said he hoped that would settle the matter.
"It was something stupid that a 10-year-old would do, and I'm sorry," Mell said.
The pet snake is not poisonous, does not bite and has tiny teeth, the newspaper said.
"It will only strike at something that it can actually eat," Mell said.
Ah, yes. I recall my sister putting a dead possum in a neighbor's mailbox. He and the post office were not amused.
Are you sure it was your sister, you wascal? :wink:
Such pranks were not my style.
Okay, so what kind of pranks did you play then?
Making potato guns and robbing kindergardeners.
haha, Now that's more like it!
At least the possum was already dead. I hate to think of the heat in a mailbox in a summer like this. Was the boa okay?
During the time I served in the Navy, my youngest brothers and sisters played many such pranks. Built a snowman on a big rock in the middle of the road, threw a frog with a lighted firecracker into someone's car as they drove past, put out a roadside sign that read Jesus heals - so do dogs. Too many to recall.
The recipient of the exploded frog chased the children (two or three) a couple of miles, but in those heavily wooded areas never got close to them.