In SEC football, the game often extends from the football field into everyday life.
For Harvey Updyke, this passion for his team has led him directly to a jail cell.
Reported earlier this week, Updyke is being charged with poisoning a set of trees at Auburn University in a location known as Toomer’s Corner.
The trees, which are Oak, are covered in toilet paper after Auburn wins a game during the fall.
For Updyke, though, Auburn’s thrashing of Alabama, his team of choice, and their march to a National Title was too much to handle.
Officials in the state are condemning the poisoning, and there are slight fears arising that Auburn fans will strike back for the brazen attack.
What makes the story even stranger, though, is that Updyke did not attend the University of Alabama, he didn’t even grow up in the state.
Updyke became a fan as a kid living in Florida, and his love for all things Alabama caused him to lash out.
Updyke used a chemical known as Spike 80DF, or tebuthiuron. When chemical analysis was done for the grounds around Toomer’s Corner, the lowest content of tebuthiuron was .78 parts per million.
While that seems like a low dosage, horticulture authorities say that dose is lethal. In its most concentrated areas in the Corner, the amount was 65 times that.
Updyke is currently being held on 50,000 dollars bond, and has already received a lifetime ban from the Auburn University campus.
