JACKSON COUNTY, Ind. -- Furious that he was picked over for a elementary school teaching job, an Indiana man mailed dead animals to the person hired, police say.
According to court documents, Travis Tarrants applied for a job teaching fourth graders and coaching basketball at the Springs Valley School Corporation. He did not get the position.
Police say Tarrants called the Department of Child Services four times, claiming the other man engaged in sexual relationships with students and his daughter. Tarrants either used somebody else's name, or called anonymously.
DCS found no evidence to support these claims.
He also mailed out four packages with dead animals in them, police say.
Three were intercepted by the Indianapolis Post Office, the other by the Jasper Post Office. Police say each package had either dead skunks or a dead raccoon in it. The fourth package had a note inside saying "RESIGN! IT WILL NOT STOP."
"It's bizarre, its just hard to believe," Charles Murphy, Jackson County Sheriff's jail commander, told Reuters. "The post office gets these packages that smell like skunks, blood coming from them."
The packages were addressed to either the man who got the job, or his fiance.
During their investigation, police learned Tarrants has an animal trap in his yard.
"It's my understanding that Mr. Tarrants decided to create some false information about the gentleman who did get the job, accused him of child molestation, mailed a couple of dead skunks, mailed a raccoon," Murphy said.
Police believe Tarrants also spray-painted both the victim's vehicle, and the victim's fiance's vehicle.
The security footage shows a vehicle resembling Tarrants' drive to their house and park across the street. Police say the footage shows Tarrants getting out and writing "F*** u" and "u will die" on their vehicles with white spray paint.
When police searched Tarrants, they found white spray paint in his house and a note with the victim's name and home address in his vehicle.
Tarrants has been charged with one count of stalking, five counts of intimidation, one count of criminal trespassing, one count of harassment, one count of criminal mischief and four counts of false informing.
