Ex-Postal Worker Peppers People With Porcupine Poop

Gauracandra · December 13, 2001

Let me just state that I accept no responsibility if any of you guys reading this get some ideas. I'm off the hook on this one Posted Image

Gauracandra

Ex-Postal Worker Peppers People With Porcupine Poop

Thursday, December 13, 2001

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A former postal employee admitted he splattered porcupine feces and worms on co-workers after he was fired for poor job performance.

James M. Beal pleaded guilty Tuesday in U.S. District Court to four counts of assaulting or impeding a federal worker. He faces three to 12 years in prison when he is sentenced in March.

Beal, 62, told Judge Gordon J. Quist that he was angry about being fired Oct. 17 as relief postmaster in Empire, a town about 225 miles northwest of Detroit. The next day, he returned with two 5-gallon buckets filled with feces and worms and splattered his former co-workers. He had gathered the sludge in the woods.

"I let my anger with this sort of overrule my judgments," Beal told the judge.

Beal's attorney, Paul Denenfel, told Quist that his client should receive six months or less in prison because it was Beal's first brush with the law.

But Quist called Beal's actions "reprehensible" and "extraordinarily demeaning," adding, "People die from this kind of stuff."

Though some disc jockeys made fun of the incident, Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Courtadehe called it "a pretty despicable act. It was in their pockets; it was in their shoes."

The assault halted local mail delivery for a day. A hazardous-materials team cleaned and repackaged mail that was hit with a note explaining the damage.