The 27-year-old stormed out of his flat with the 5ft snake wrapped round his arms to plead with firefighters to switch off their blue flashing lights. He marched up to the fire engine and thrust the snake towards fire officer Tony Dorey who was in the cab.
Little did he know Mr Dorey was petrified of snakes – and was so shaken by the black and brown reptile writhing towards him that he phoned the police. Southampton magistrates heard how Edwards was upset as his two-year-old snake had begun striking its head on the wall of its tank because of the lights and noise as firefighters were dealing with a small fire in a trailer.
Edwards, 27, unemployed, of Marryat Road, New Milton, pleaded guilty to using threatening and words and behaviour to cause alarm and distress to Mr Dorey during the incident on January 11 at 12.30pm. Magistrates ordered him to compensate Mr Dorey, a retained firefighter based at New Milton, with £100 and pay £85 court costs.
4 comments:
They should also have made the firefighter get counseling... Unless he likes living in fear.
The snake owner is also a complete idiot, and I call him that on behalf of other snake owners.
A fire takes precedence over a snake, and dragging the terrified animal out into the night to get an even better blast of flashing lights only to be shoved at a possible predator's face is also much, much worse for the animal.
Have you noticed how "snake owner" and "unemployed" are usually coincident?
Above anonymous - unfair comment I think. All snake owners I know are either in full time employment or full time higher education.
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