The Ashley News Observer

CROSSETT,ARKANSAS
APRIL 2 1997
Page 1

Sheriff's deputies have seen most everything and there is little that surprises them, but a radio call about a man pulling a coffin in a cart along U.S. Highway 82, 10 miles east of Hamburg, peaked the curiosity of the Ashley County Sheriff's deputies late Friday evening.

Deputies stopped the man about 6:30 p.m. Friday in the Snyder community east of Hamburg, shortly after the Ashley County Sheriff's Department received a call from a citizen reporting a man walking along U.S. Highway 82 pulling a coffin.

Deputies searched the man for weapons and after receiving a consent to search, deputies took a deep breath and opened the lid to the coffin. Deputies didn't find a body inside the coffin, however, they did find several plastic baggies with marijuana residue and several marijuana pipes and other drug paraphernalia inside. The man, Rudolph Stolfer, 47, from Pennsylvania (not Transylvania), told deputies he was "passing through" Ashley County, carrying his belongings in the coffin, which was made of heavy cardboard.

Stolfer told deputies he is an "advocate for the legalization of marijuana." The deputies were not impressed and Stolfer is in the Ashley County jail charged with possession of an instrument of crime, drug paraphernalia.

Stolfer did not explain to deputies why he kept his belongings in a coffin and it is not known if Stolfer is a vampire, since that information is not in the booking report.