Remember the Alamo’s desecration at the, er … hands of Ozzy Osbourne? Who doesn’t? In that infamous 1982 incident, the British heavy metal legend and future reality show star relieved himself upon the Alamo Cenotaph.
Thirty years later, according to Eva Ruth Moravec of the San Antonio Express-News, 21-year-old Daniel Athens of El Paso was arrested for public intoxication and urinating in public after “pulling an Ozzy” at the Alamo Saturday night.
As Moravec (who, it should be noted, not only broke the story, but used the phrase “pulling an Ozzy” before KENS did) wrote:
According to Melinda Navarro, the Alamo Committee chairwoman with the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, Athens walked around the olive tree in front of the shrine, then ducked under a chain and did his deed on the nearly 300-year-old limestone façade. One of three rangers guarding the historic site Saturday night saw Athens, Navarro said. There were numerous visitors also on the grounds.
“The ranger started running towards him, but the guy had already done his thing,” she said. “So he took him inside the gates and waited for the San Antonio Police Department.”
Navarro told Moravec that an Alamo curator and a preservation expert will determine how the limestone should be cleaned. Depending on their findings, Athens could still potentially face an additional charge of “damaging a public monument,” which is a state jail felony.
Osbourne aside, Moravec also reported that someone else has been arrested for urinating at the Alamo as recently as 2009.
More (with video) from Christina Coleman of Fox 29, whose report includes footage of Athens being driven away in the back of a squad car.
It also features an interview with an outraged Colorado tourist who–understandably, but still rather hilariously–uses the word “defecate” instead of “desecrate” about the incident.
