April Fools Day celebrates wacky hijinks, but sometimes those shenanigans can have a dark and deadly side, as 46-year-old Tom Cronler discovered this morning outside his home in Powdersville, South Carolina.
Cronler got into his car to go to work and was bitten repeatedly by copperhead snakes and black widow spiders that had been placed there by his practical joking 44-year-old next door neighbor, Pete Muskes.
“It was an accident,” Muskes said. “I just wanted to give ol’ Tomcat a surprise wake up call with the spiders and snakes. I thought he’d appreciate my zany madcap stunt and maybe try and offer me an exploding cigar or something in retaliation. But I guess Tom was allergic to poison. I don’t know, it’s kind of weird to think my innocent little joke had deadly consequences, but, hey–– what can you do?”
Muskes was arrested pending the sense of humor of a judge.