Police: Assault suspect actually holding mink carcass

HOQUIAM, Wash. -- Police say a Washington man who was holding a dead weasel when he assaulted his girlfriend's ex-boyfriend was actually yielding a mink carcass.

Hoquiam police said the 33-year-old man had the dead animal with him when he went to the other man's apartment looking for his girlfriend Monday. The victim told police that he was struck after he asked the man why he was carrying a weasel.

He told police the attacker replied, "It's not a weasel, it's a marten," then punched him in the nose and fled.

But police Chief Jeff Myers told KXRO that martens haven't been seen in the area for 50 years, and that the dead animal was a mink. Both minks and martens are members of the weasel family.

The man was arrested later.