May 18, 2017
From WESH.com
SORRENTO, Fla. — Nathaniel Harris, 79, said he was hungry. The problem is, he wanted to eat two gopher tortoises he had just dug out of the ground.
An officer with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) put handcuffs on Harris and took him to the Lake County Jail on a charge of possession of a threatened species. Under Florida law, it’s illegal to threaten, harass or kill the reptiles.
Harris was released Wednesday after a judge determined that the punishment should be one day in jail, and closed the case.