The poisoned oaks of Toomer's Corner
Auburn, Alabama, United States, 2010
This case is a work of fiction. The characters, names, places and events in the game do not portray real people. The account below is a factual summary, based on public sources, of the case that served as inspiration.
Toomer's Corner, at the crossing of Magnolia Avenue and College Street, marks the entrance to the Auburn University campus and the beginning of downtown. For decades, after every football victory, Auburn fans have covered the two big oak trees on the corner, about 130 years old, with toilet paper. In November 2010, Auburn beat its rival the University of Alabama 28 to 27 in the state rivalry game, the Iron Bowl, on its way to that season's national title.
On January 27, 2011, a listener who called himself "Al from Dadeville" phoned Paul Finebaum's sports radio show and said that, the weekend after the game, he had spread the pasture herbicide Spike 80DF (tebuthiuron) around the oaks. The university analyzed the soil: the 33 samples showed levels of the product considered very lethal, and Auburn said it had never used that herbicide. On February 17, police arrested Harvey Updyke, 62, an Alabama fan and retired Texas state trooper who lived near Dadeville.
Sources
In the game
Dry Corner
Marlow Springs, eastern Alabama, Wednesday, February 2, 2011, 8 pm. At Oak Corner, where the Wolves fans throw toilet paper after every win, two 130-year-old oak trees stand with straw-colored leaves.
On March 22, 2013, Updyke pleaded guilty to criminal damage to an agricultural facility, a felony under Alabama law. He was sentenced to three years, of which he served six months in the county jail, followed by five years of supervised release, with a 7 pm curfew and a ban on entering the Auburn campus and attending any college sporting event. Despite the soil replacement and other treatments, the oaks could not be saved and were removed in April 2013; the corner received new soil and two mature oaks planted in their place.
