Recently a homeless man down in Florida was arrested for stealing a ferret from a local pet store. What was unusual, was the man stole the ferret by shoving it down his pants and walking out of the store. A witness to the crime, a 17 year old  teenager who saw what just happened, confronted the homeless man in the store parking lot. While talking to the homeless man the teenager was bitten in the nose by the ferret when the homeless man decided to whip it out of his pants, wield it as a weapon, and shove the ferret in the teenagers face. That confrontation makes the ferret a "special weapon" under Florida law. After the police were called, the man was charged with theft for stealing the $129 animal and battery charges for dangerously wielding the animal. I could understand that the homeless guy just wanted a pet to keep him company in his lonely world but there are some things I find troubling concerning his actions.

 First, placing a ferret down your pants does not seem like a wise decision. Ferrets have sharp teeth and sharp claws and to place the live animal next to the man's "family jewels" could be a horrific disaster waiting to happen. If that ferret decided to start biting the man's "balls", it's all over. Not to mention all the scratches up and down the man's leg caused by a panicked ferret wondering what the hell is going on? I do give the guy some credit though, he fought the pain and made it out of the store without getting his "balls" bitten off. This may not be the first ferret that this guy has shoved down his pants, he may have pulled this off before.

 Second, I have never heard of a person using a ferret as some sort of weapon for attack. It's not like you could tell the ferret to "kill" at your beckon call, he'll just look at you and run away. So when the homeless man was confronted in the parking lot, he must have felt that using the ferret as a weapon was his only option. It seemed to work, the ferret did attack and bit the teenager in the nose. I'm wondering why the homeless man wasn't bitten himself if the ferret had an attitude? Has the homeless man had experience wielding ferrets before? Did the homeless man and the ferret bond in that short time the ferret was down the man's pants? There are a lot of unanswered questions here, but at least now I know that when I see someone who may look suspicious and has a ferret with them, I'm going to be on the highest alert!