Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe CHESTERTON, Ind., May 7 (UPI) -- A Chesterton, Ind., man who was bitten on the finger by a Western Diamondback Rattlesnake may face charges for possessing the snake. Robert Urbanski, 66, could be charged with illegal possession of poisonous snakes, after he was airlifted to the Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis, the Northwest Indiana Post-Tribune reported Monday. Advertisement Urbanski said he was handling the Western Diamondback rattlesnake when it bit him. Police and rescue personnel took him to a local hospital before he was airlifted. Indiana Department of Natural Resources conservation officer Robert Cauffman went to Urbanski's home and found two rattlesnakes inside. Urbanski reportedly purchased the snakes less than a week earlier at a swap meet in Hamburg, Pa. The DNR said one of the snakes was a Western Diamondback and the other a Dusty Pigmy rattlesnake -- and said Urbanski did not have a permit for either of them It is illegal to own venomous snakes without a permit in Indiana. The case was handed over to the county prosecutor's office.
