Fisherman's trip ends as snakebite victim, carjacking suspect

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Saturday, Childrey didn't bother donning his usual fishing pants. He didn't bother with his cell phone. He just pulled on a pair of jeans and wading boots and hit the stream.

"I was pretty excited," he said. "It just looked real good."

Sure enough, he found browns and rainbows were enthusiastically chowing down on hoppers, and he caught several very nice fish.

Fishing his home water, he knew all the good spots. So he headed to the next one, saw a fish rising, and stepped toward the river to make his cast.

Whack. He was bitten on the leg by a rattlesnake.

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He started walking back toward his house. He had seen the neighboring ranch's caretaker drive by, so he started calling out.

"Calling, heck, I was yelling," he said. "Then I saw the caretaker's truck. I looked inside it, and the keys were in it."

So Childrey jumped in the truck and headed for another nearby ranch.

What he didn't know was that the caretaker had seen him take the truck, but didn't recognize him and assumed his truck had just been stolen. So he called the sheriff.

Our snakebitten protagonist, by now a car-theft suspect, pulled up in the yard of the Garrison place. "Floydena and Billy Garrison are good friends," Childrey said. "Floydena was mowing her lawn. So I yelled at her."

"I just put him in the truck and took him to town," Floydena said. "I didn't even grab my cell phone

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Meanwhile, back at the other ranch, the caretaker's pickup truck had been located at the Garrison place.

Trouble was, Floydena and her truck were missing. People began to worry that whoever stole the first truck decided Floydena's new truck was better and abducted it, along with her.

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