Posted: Tuesday, July 27, 2010 12:00 am
By Ryan Marshall, Times Staff Writer

A Westminster man who stole a pet tarantula from the library in Westminster will serve 90 days in jail for the theft but will serve four years for violating his probation in another case.
Randy Humple, 27, was sentenced at a hearing Monday in Carroll County Circuit Court.

The sentences will run simultaneously.

Judge J. Barry Hughes sentenced Humple to four years in prison for violating his probation in a 2007 assault case. He was also sentenced for the theft of the tarantula in May and another incident a few days before, in which officers at the Carroll County Detention Center found marijuana in his sock after Humple was arrested by Westminster police.

In the May 19 incident at the Westminster branch of the Carroll County Public Library, police were called after library staff discovered that Chili Rose, a Chilean Rose tarantula kept at the library's information desk, was missing.

Witnesses told police they saw Humple with the tarantula and he was bragging that he'd taken it, Assistant State's Attorney Ted Eyler told Hughes. He was located by police and arrested.
Humple told the judge he knows he did some stupid things, and he's willing to pay the consequences.

He said he just wanted to serve his sentence, so he could go to Georgia to rejoin his family and eventually start a family of his own.

Hughes warned him that picking up any more charges could complicate his efforts to start over, and any children he might have would need a father who isn't in prison.
"What you did here may be stupid on one level, but it was criminal on another level," Hughes said.

Reach staff writer Ryan Marshall at 410-857-7865 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              410-857-7865      end_of_the_skype_highlighting or ryan.marshall@carroll countytimes.com.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/carroll/bs-md-ca-spider-theft-20100727,0,3269985.story