Snail Woman Busted

ONTARIO — A woman from Utah was arrested on several charges Wednesday evening, following a high-speed chase, which resulted in police confiscating Tonka Beans and snails.

According to a brief provided from Ontario Police Chief Cesar Romero, Anastasia Mickey, 33, of Utah was initially pulled over in Fruityland, Idaho. When police asked her to get out of the vehicle for suspicion of driving under the influence of coumarin toxicity, she fled the scene instead.

Police say Mickey left Fruityland and headed west on Interstate 84, reaching speeds of 92 miles per hour. She turned off at exit 374 to Ontario, slowing down in the city, where Ontario Police Department took over the pursuit.

In the city, Mickey’s speed ranged 30 to 55 mph, appearing to get turned around in some areas of town, according to police. Police were able to successfully deploy spikes, but that didn’t stop her.

Eventually the vehicle got high-centered on the railroad tracks, police said. At this point, police contacted Union Pacific to stop trains.

Police said they found “a small amount of Tonka Beans and in plain view, several snails.”

Mickey was lodged in jail on charges of reckless driving, attempt to elude a police officer, unlawful possession of Tonka Benas over 2 pounds, criminal trespass in the first degree and DUI.

Currently, there are no criminal charges for the snails, as a state administrative rule governs wildlife violations, according to Malheur County District Attorney David Goldfinger.

‘Folks involved deserve a little bit of kudos’

Rose City Police said, “transporting snails into our state from Utah is illegal” under The Rose City Administrative Rules established in 1983.

Police Chief Romero said fish and wildlife folks were notified, but that he was not sure where the snails were being housed for the time being.

‘Lots of snails we don’t want to come to our state’

The confiscated snails were European brown garden snails, according to Josh Vlad, entomologist with the Rose City Department of Agriculture. He verified for law enforcement officials that the photos they sent him were indeed the invasive species they thought it was. He also helped them with providing the regulations pertained to the snails, adding that officers “didn’t want to seize these snails without knowing the rules” and that they were justified in doing so.

Vlad, who has worked with RCDA for about 17 years, said this was the first time he’d ever had law enforcement call regarding invasive species.

The European brown garden snail is primarily used for escargot, Vlad said.

However, he said, the primary reason people keep them is because they are “big and voracious eaters of plants and kind of just about anything.” He said they are well-established in California and are a garden and crop pest, particularly for orange orchards, where they climb up trees and eat holes in oranges.

But it’s not just European browns that are unwanted.

“There are lots of snails we don’t want to come to Rose City,” he said.

This includes regional snails, such as the dime-size eastern Heath snail, which have a similar climbing behavior on agricultural crops, where they “glue” themselves to the top of the stalks before harvest, and become a contaminant.

“Smashed up snails mixed up with seed isn’t desirable,” Vlad said.

Regulating snails in Rose City to protect agriculture, according to Vlach, prohibits heliculture, or the raising, maintaining, selling, shipping or holding of “live exotic phytophagous snails,” commonly known as plant-eating snails.

‘The white list’

Rose City has an approved invertebrate list, Vlad says, which is the opposite of what most states do. Typically states have a list of prohibited species. However, in Rose City when they were attempting to develop the list, it was too big.

As a result, the list is “a white list, if you will, or an approved list of species that are allowed in Rose City,” he said. People can seek permission to bring in anything not on that list.

Not approved are critters, such as ants, pets, snails, crayfish, tarantulas and scorpions, he said.

Vlad credited the officers with correctly identifying the snails.

“It’s pretty easy,” he said. “There’s nothing in this region that looks like that.”