Quote:
Originally Posted by Keith Northrop
to do with anything but driving on a suspended license would keep you from getting a new DL very easy....Did a news paper print anything about the 1991
manslaugter? Who got killed? I'm testing my dective skills. Noah's Ark had
chickens rabbits but no pigs......and of course Large sums of money.....HaHa
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I believe this is the Noah's Ark article:
5th-wheel recreational vehicle was like Noah's Arc on wheels
It may appear amusing today, but for DPS
Officer Glen Swavely that April 17 traffic stop
certainly wasn’t a belly-buster at the time.
Not after being told that the fifth-wheel
recreational vehicle he stopped on Interstate
10 near Eloy was transporting dogs, cats,
chickens, rats, rabbits, three desert tortoises
and snakes as in 50 boa constrictors. It was
like a modern-day Noah’s Arc on wheels.
Collecting information about the animals
didn’t come easily for Swavely. Talking to
the couple was as frustrating as pulling dan-
delions from a plush lawn. The man-and-
wife team just weren’t forthcoming with in-
formation about their cargo.
With patience and continuous question-
ing, Swavely learned that the two transport-
ing the animals also had a large sum of money
stashed inside the trailer amongst the live
reptiles.
Thinking that the couple might also be
transporting dope, he was persistent in ask-
ing them if there was anything else he should
know.
Repeatedly, he was assured there wasn’t.
Well, after a minute or so inside the trailer,
he learned despite his prodding questions
and their assurances, the couple really
wasn’t quite up front in describing their
cargo.
Shortly after entering the trailer, an “Oh,
My God!!! exclamation from Swavely indi-
cated proof positive that the 12-year DPS
officer unsuspectedly found the first of 32
alligators who were also part of the traveling
“zoo.”
“To put it mildly, it was a heck of a sur-
prise for the officer,” DPS Media Relations
Officer Frank Valenzuela told the media, add-
ing that Swavely initiated the traffic stop at
about 11 that Sunday night after noticing
the trailer did not have operational tail lights.
While talking to the driver, Damon
Heynen, 38, of California, Swavely said he
was told the animals were being moved from
California to Georgia.
“After a brief interview, Swavely felt the
driver and his wife were acting in a very sus-
picious manner,”Valenzuela said.
After obtaining information about the
animals on board, Swavely began his prob-
able-cause search. He found some of the
alligators under a mattress and plywood.
Many of the alligators were under three feet
in length. One, however, was full grown and
weighed about 400 pounds.
“Officer Swavely thought he was getting
a load of dope, but it was really a bunch of
alligators and snakes,” Valenzuela said.