DOCUMENT: Bizarre, Crime

Toad Licker Is Locked Up On Trespass Charge

Man, 41, tongued amphibian outside bar

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Toad Licker Bust

JUNE 23--An Indiana man who was licking a toad while dancing by himself on an Indiana sidewalk is locked up after ignoring a trespass warning issued by cops, according to a police report.

La Porte Police Department officers were called to a bar early Sunday morning when Richard Mullins, 41, refused to leave the property after being escorted outside by security. The barefoot Mullins would not provide bouncers with ID when he walked into JJ’s Side Out Bar & Grill, cops reported.

After being steered out of the business--but before police arrived--Mullins began dancing in the bar’s parking lot. “The subject then reportedly picked up a toad and was licking it prior to our arrival,” Officer Vincent Bowman noted.

When questioned by cops, Mullins had a “blank look on his face but no pupil dilation to suggest he was under the influence of any drugs.” Officers warned Mullins that if he returned to the bar’s property he would be arrested. Mullins seemed to understand the warning, Bowman wrote, “as when he was dancing he would walk right up to the property line that we pointed out and then walk back.”

But a few minutes after receiving the trespass warning, Mullins returned to the bar’s parking lot. When police subsequently approached Mullins, “he was holding another toad.”

Charged with misdemeanor trespassing, Mullins was booked into the La Porte County jail, where he is being held in advance of a June 30 court appearance.

Since the police report does not identify what kind of toad Mullins was licking, it is impossible to determine the amphibian’s potential psychoactive properties or its toxicity. (2 pages)