CALDWELL COUNTY, Texas – An ongoing dispute between neighbors almost turned deadly when a Texas man decided to use a rattlesnake as a weapon, according to the Austin American-Statesman.
The bizarre incident happened June 17 in rural Caldwell County, just south of Austin, after an argument between 39-year-old Ryan Felton Sauter and his neighbor, Keith Monroe.
According to the police report, Sauter found a rattlesnake later that day and used his teeth to rip off the end of the reptile’s tail, silencing the deadly creature. He then allegedly opened the door of Monroe’s trailer and placed it inside.
Monroe told the paper he saw Sauter leaving his trailer and asked him what he was doing, to which Sauter replied, “You’ll see.”
“I didn’t know what to think,” Monroe said. “I was scared, really.”
Monroe told KVUE he saw the snake curled up on the driver’s side of his trailer and killed it with a machete.
Caldwell County deputies later found the rattlesnake and confirmed in the arrest affidavit “that the snake’s rattles had been removed.”
Sauter was arrested on charges of deadly conduct and criminal trespass of a habitation, both misdemeanors.
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