The Nutbags Strike Back: Updyke’s Family Gets Death Threats

Shock of shocks, the quacky act of Harvey Updyke — “Al from Dadeville” on “The Paul Finebaum Show” — has flushed out a few more crazies. The family of the man who poisoned Auburn’s oak trees now claims to be receiving death threats from Tiger fans. And I don’t doubt it for a second.

“We have children and grandchildren getting death threats from Auburn fans,” a man claiming to be Updyke’s son told The Mobile Press-Register. “We’re having to pull teenagers, 13- and 14-year-old kids, out of school because people are threatening them.”

Who didn’t see this coming? In fact, we said yesterday morning that this type of nonsense — from the other side of the rivalry — was to be expected. Heck, everyone knew this was coming.

Finebaum told ESPN.com’s Mark Schlabach that he expects the UA-AU rivalry to become even more heated following Updyke’s attack on Toomer’s Corner. “I almost hate to say what I should say — that perhaps I’m surprised we haven’t seen anything worse. I think it will get worse. I really do.”

Hey, nutjobs, here’s how you lose sympathy in a situation like this: You make death threats against innocent people. Those oak trees were a symbol of Auburn University and AU fans have every right to be sad, mad and disgusted. But they were trees. Threatening to kill people is not a proportional response. The best response, of course, would be to do nothing except buck up, move forward and show clowns like Updyke that they can’t get under your skin.

As for Updyke, he has a daughter named Crimson and a son named Bear. His son — not sure if it was “Bear” or not – said that his father has a pacemaker and suffers from kidney failure, high blood pressure and diabetes, and is on 21 different medications. He also said his 62-year-old father is being treated like “a rapist or a murderer… he hasn’t been convicted yet.”

He hasn’t been convicted, but he did call a nationally syndicated radio show to say that he killed the trees. And that he didn’t care if the act was illegal. Good look to his court-appointed attorney beating that one.

In addition, WAAY-TV in Huntsville, Alabama reports that Updyke has been arrested twice before — in 1996 (criminal mischief) and in 2004 (theft).

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